Researchers were able to control the pain of mice using light
Modern medicine has succeeded in extending life expectancy to a very considerable extent, but the addition of years does not guarantee quality of life. More and more diseases and other medical circumstances are accompanied by dealing with chronic pain, which medicine manages to deal with only to a limited extent. Since this is a very subjective matter, it is very difficult to measure pain and quantify it, but various studies in the Western world indicate that 10% and even 20% of the population suffer from chronic pain at various levels. The causes of such pains can also be different and diverse: nerve damage, orthopedic problems, cancer and other diseases. Science is still far from fully understanding the mechanisms of pain, and medicine offers treatments with very limited effectiveness. Most drugs are ineffective over time or have legal problems with them (medical marijuana, for example). The other treatments are still in their infancy, both in terms of effectiveness and availability. But what if we could just turn off the pain with the push of a button?
Light through the skin
Researchers from Stanford University in the USA are trying to advance the solution of the problem through a fairly new scientific field - optogenetics, meaning a combination of optics and genetics. Advanced molecular biology allows us (that is, scientists) to control with high precision the production of certain substances in the cell. The optical component comes in when using technology that allows these processes to be controlled by light. Today, scientists can genetically engineer cells so that, for example, they start to secrete insulin in response to light, and stop in the dark. Optogenetics can have many applications in research and medicine, but to use it in a living creature, it is usually necessary to transplant the genetically engineered cells developed in the laboratory. In a study now published in the journal Nature Biotechnology, the researchers forgo genetic engineering in mice, and instead injected their feet with genetically engineered viruses. The viruses contained substances that act on the nerve cells in the feet. They have been engineered so that in blue light, they will release into the nerve substances that cause intense pain to the mouse. On the other hand, in yellow light, the viruses release a substance that paralyzes the nerve cells used as receptors for pain responses, and in fact makes the mice immune to pain. Because the skin on the feet of the mice is so thin that it is almost completely transparent, it is enough to shine a light of the appropriate color under the transparent floor of the mouse cage to trigger the reaction.
light at the end of the tunnel
Indeed, when the researchers turned on a blue light under the mouse's cage, they immediately displayed behavior indicative of pain: twitching, whining and licking of the feet. In contrast, when painful rubber bands were tied to the legs of the mice, the pain response stopped when a yellow light was turned on under the cage. The researchers, of course, do not propose to inject patients suffering from pain with the obviously unpleasant substances they injected into mice, nor to engineer their nerve cells for the time being. However, the study proves the principle feasibility of turning off the pain response using light. It is important to remember that evolution did not bother in vain to develop the complex system of pain sensing. Pain plays an important role in warning animals of various dangers, and of causing further damage to their bodies after an injury. There is a group of genetic diseases whose patients do not feel any pain, and they are very dangerous - especially for children, who may break limbs, or suffer severe infections without feeling at all that something is wrong. However, as with every important system in our body, the pain system can also go wrong, causing severe suffering to patients. The experiment of the Santaford researchers, led by Carl Deisseroth and Scott Delp, raises the hope that an optogenetic method may one day bring relief to the suffering of many patients.
8 תגובות
Arya, it seems to me that Chaim only wanted to strengthen and add knowledge to the fascinating thread and not to dictate anything to it.
Thank you Haim.
flint,
I assume that the intention is to cut off the pain in chronic cases that limit people from living and even from working in order to be able to raise money on their own to help them. Of course, the thought of earning money in order to ease your own pain in order to earn money (which is the vicious circle you are actually talking about) is horrifying, but there are also people who are currently confined to their homes or in hospitals due to pain and have no solution for this.
Every day that passes in which a person is paralyzed by pain is another day in which he does not live.
Haim; Do you think you should teach Camila? The style of her writing did not dictate the use of the term.
withering
The pain of amputees has a name. phantom pains
flint
Camila is right. There are other cases of pain that do not have a physiological origin. There are also cases where the treatment of the problem involves such a high risk that it is better to treat the pain, and not the problem itself. And there are diseases that have no cure today, and all that can be done is to prevent, at least partially, the pain. Cancer, tetanus, and rabies for example.
flint,
I wish you to endure strong pains and to be able to take time off to rest (as if that is what guarantees pain relief) and I hope you don't take any painkillers because you wouldn't want to prevent it from fulfilling its purpose, would you? But you must understand, there are others, for example amputees, who suffer from severe pain, and their pain has no purpose, it simply happens because of unwanted circumstances. Please don't deny them a better quality of life because of narrow thinking.
There is a saying that the worst thing is to do well something that should not be done in the first place.
The sentence from the article: "Science is still far from fully understanding the mechanisms of pain, and medicine offers treatments with very limited effectiveness." Shows the basic problem in the approach of most scientists, which is the lack of understanding of what healing actually is.
It can be very interesting to understand how the pain mechanisms work and how to control them, but for what purpose?
Pain has a purpose. is a signal that something is wrong in the body.
A person suffering from chronic pain is because something is wrong with them.
If they make his chronic pain disappear, they will not cure him, but simply turn off the alarm. This means that the situation will only get worse.
Unfortunately I know it very well. A person dear to me who has a problem with the cartilage of his vertebrae and suffers from severe pain takes painkillers so that he can continue to function and work as usual... instead of resting, the pills allow him to work without feeling pain, and the condition of his back only worsens.
Just reading about this abuse of mice - the research of these researchers should be boycotted.
The research actually demonstrates an elegant method of delayed/directed release of materials based on activation with light of a certain wavelength and not curing with light. A subtle but significant difference...