Ebiomedicine: new therapies help relieve chronic pain caused by pancreatic diseases

October 4, 2019 / BIOON / -- chronic pain is one of the most serious symptoms associated with pancreatitis or pancreatic cancer Pancreatic pain is difficult to treat because many painkillers have been shown to be ineffective in pancreatic patients In a recent study, a team at the University of technology in Munich (tum) for the first time found that the symptoms are difficult to alleviate: specific enzymes in the body are present in the pancreatic nerves in high concentrations In many cases, only effective painkillers (such as opium) can alleviate the suffering of those affected But these drugs have serious side effects, including dependence, fatigue and constipation For this reason, scientists have long been looking for better pain treatments for pancreatic patients (image source: www Pixabay Com) in response, Dr IHSAN Ekin demir and others examined 42 pancreatic tissue samples (taken from the head area of organs) from patients with chronic inflammation (chronic pancreatitis) or pancreatic cancer In this area, nerve density is particularly high, so surgical resection is usually required for therapeutic reasons) The organization of healthy volunteers served as a control for the study Scientists tested the levels of the most important neurotransmitters and enzymes in the pancreatic nerves It has been proved that the content of a specific enzyme molecule named "neuronal nitric oxide synthetase (nNOS)" in the nerves of patients with pancreatic tissue examined has increased significantly The enzyme is responsible for the synthesis of messenger no, which plays a role in the development of pain: no leads to over activation of neurons by binding to receptors on the surface of neurons When the scientists then added the extract from the patient's sample to the nerve cell culture, the number of nNOS enzymes in the cultured nerve cells increased significantly Later, they used a specific inhibitor to block nNOS in a well-established mouse model of pancreatic disease The team found that the drug treated mice had significantly lower tactile sensitivity to the affected abdominal area than the control group Ekin demir's team now plans to test the new drug in the early pre clinical and future clinical studies, hoping that it may be used as an alternative pain therapy for pancreatic patients in the future In this paper, the author analyzes the characteristics of, Kalliope N Diakopoulos, Marina Lesina, Michael Schemann, Mert Erkan, Achim Krüger, Hana Algül, Helmut Friess, Güralp O Ceyhan Targeting nNOS ameliorates the severe neuropathic pain due to chronic pancreatitis EBioMedicine , 2019; 46: 431 DOI: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2019.07.055