Experimental drug​ cuts off pain at the source not the brain avoiding addiction

[John Clark]

By studying a Pakistani family that has a rare mutation that renders them unable to feel pain, a small company called Vertex Pharmaceuticals has developed a drug, that can be taken orally, that has shown significant reduction in pain in two different drug studies with no clear adverse side effects. The drug company found that 2 genes, called Nav1.7 and Nav1.8, are needed for the peripheral nervous system to transmit pain messages to the brain, their drug works by temporarily blocking the operation of Nav1.8 making it unable to manufacture the protein needed to transmit such pain messages. In two different clinical trials, one with  1073 people who were in pain and one with 1118, the patients reported a significant reduction in pain and they experienced less nausea and fewer headaches then with opioids, surprisingly even less than the control patients who received placebos.  Because the drug targets the peripheral nervous system and has no obvious effect on the brain it is unlikely to cause addiction. Right now the drug is just called "VX-548" but if it's as good as it sounds and is approved by the FDA it will be a huge blockbuster and I'm sure they'll think of a catchier name.

  John K Clark    See what's on my new list at  Extropolis

pnm

[Henrik Ohrstrom]

Everything that works causes some form of addiction.  I myself for example are quite addicted to my glasses and also oxygen.  I get severe withdrawal symptoms if I go cold turkey on those things.

So talk about addiction or not is pointless.  Of interest is side effects and effects,  does the drug take all sorts of pain? Just inflammation pain? Neurogenic pain? Phantom pain?

/Henrik 

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "extropolis" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to extropolis+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/extropolis/CAJPayv0sJgMg3KXuJwPdnoYVcFsvbV-yhHjai-e8g6p4Lvo%2B_Q%40mail.gmail.com.

[William Flynn Wallace]

Psychological addiction can be far stronger than physical ones, for drugs or anything else.   Physical ones can go away in two weeks.  Not the psyc ones.  bill w

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/extropolis/CAF0GBnihtoL2ga-QPpZmmPep5UyC%2BDQiYLtgP2ZomtZ5h8-uMQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Henrik Ohrstrom]

Tentatively after surfing through a number of abstracts, this is a collection of new entryways into pain regulation. 

Interesting but not one single mechanism. Not that that would be a problem,  quite the opposite, a family of pain transmission channels available for exploration is good news indeed. 

/Henrik 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/extropolis/CAO%2BxQEYm7nHuZWCoKmsrqO2qJpJRSf6ecQZaPCg%2BnR7uga-L7w%40mail.gmail.com.

[John Clark]

On Tue, Jan 30, 2024 at 12:08 PM Henrik Ohrstrom <henrik....@gmail.com> wrote:

> Everything that works causes some form of addiction.  I myself for example are quite addicted to my glasses and also oxygen.

OK, but most people don't mind that they are addicted to those things but most junkies wish they weren't addicted to heroin.  

 > Of interest is side effects 

I already mentioned those 

 

  > does the drug take all sorts of pain? Just inflammation pain? Neurogenic pain? Phantom pain?

I don't know, all I know is it operates on the peripheral nervous system not the brain and it significantly helped about 2000 people who were in pain because it was immediately after surgery.  Incidentally the Pakistani family that had that rare mutation that blocked the operation of the gene the drug is based on made money by staging exhibitions where they walked on hot coals and cut themselves with knives.

 John K Clark    See what's on my new list at  Extropolis

oim

ctn

 

By studying a Pakistani family that has a rare mutation that renders them unable to feel pain, a small company called Vertex Pharmaceuticals has developed a drug, that can be taken orally, that has shown significant reduction in pain in two different drug studies with no clear adverse side effects. The drug company found that 2 genes, called Nav1.7 and Nav1.8, are needed for the peripheral nervous system to transmit pain messages to the brain, their drug works by temporarily blocking the operation of Nav1.8 making it unable to manufacture the protein needed to transmit such pain messages. In two different clinical trials, one with  1073 people who were in pain and one with 1118, the patients reported a significant reduction in pain and they experienced less nausea and fewer headaches then with opioids, surprisingly even less than the control patients who received placebos.  Because the drug targets the peripheral nervous system and has no obvious effect on the brain it is unlikely to cause addiction. Right now the drug is just called "VX-548" but if it's as good as it sounds and is approved by the FDA it will be a huge blockbuster and I'm sure they'll think of a catchier name.

  

pnm