Every twentieth person suffers from neuropathic pain that prevents the patient from functioning normally. An innovative drug developed at the Collegium Medicum of the Jagiellonian University may provide hope for these people. The drug is also intended to help people with epilepsy.
We have found a relationship that can help both people with epilepsy (about 1-2% of people suffering from this ailment -PAP) and people with neuropathic pain, which is more than 5% in the society. – says Dr. Anna Waszkielewicz from the Faculty of Pharmacy of the Jagiellonian University Medical College, coordinator of research on a new drug, in an interview with PAP.
For her research, the specialist received the main prize in the Innovation is a Woman competition.
The scientist explains that the specific – developed by her under the supervision of prof. Henryka Marona – has already passed most of the tests on animals, including large mammals. He reveals that the relationship was found to be ten times stronger than previously registered drugs. The indications are that it will also be effective in treating people, but the first human tests are expected to start in 2 years at the latest.
Usually, pain protects against stimuli that damage the body. And in the case of neuropathic pain – it ceases to protect and becomes a disease. The pain is then caused by stimuli that should not cause it at all – says the researcher.
He admits that neuropathic pain can accompany shingles, cancer, AIDS, and – although less often – diabetes. In addition, neuropathic pain occurs, for example, in phantom pain, when people who have had a limb cut off experience pain in the limb all the time. The reasons for the occurrence of such pain may be different, but such pain is always uncontrollable and the suffering of patients can be enormous – adds the scientist.
We were looking for a compound that stabilizes the functioning of nerve cells and prevents seizures in animals, and by accident we managed to find a substance that acts on a specific receptor in these cells – the sigma receptor – responsible only for pain – says an expert from the Jagiellonian University.
The scientist says that until recently it was mistakenly believed that sigma receptors belong to the family of opioid receptors – i.e. those that are affected by morphine. However, morphine did not provide relief in patients with neuropathic pain. New compounds that would act selectively in new mechanisms of action were needed. Such a relationship turned out to be the one that Dr. Waszkielewicz is working on.
The researcher explains that so far no registered drug has only acted on sigma receptors. This is very good news – it means that the drug from the Jagiellonian University will probably be able to be combined with other drugs used in neuropathic pain and it will be possible to use it in parallel with the current therapy. Our drug should help, but not harm, the researcher believes. – This compound is safe because if there is no pain, the drug will not work even in high doses – explains Waszkielewicz.
The drug developed at the Jagiellonian University Medical College could be used not only in the treatment of neuropathic pain, but also epilepsy – especially in cases of drug resistance – when the current drugs stop working during treatment.
Dr. Waszkielewicz explains that research into new drugs against neurological diseases is very difficult, costly and long-lasting – it usually takes 10-20 years from the idea to the drug to its administration to people, and the time from its administration to the first patients to market release is another 6-7 years. years.
In addition, research poses ethical dilemmas – animal experiments must be carried out before it is administered to patients. The efficacy of a drug can be tested by treating the animal and causing it pain. For this reason, only substances with the best prognosis are included in the research, after obtaining the consent of the appropriate bioethical commission. The relationship with the Jagiellonian University as part of the anti-epileptic drug search program has already been tested at the National Institutes of Health (National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke) in the United States in animal studies, isolated cells, enzymes and genes.
The compound is already patented, among others in Poland, and its production was shown by interested pharmaceutical companies.
Research conducted in Poland is financed by the European Regional Development Fund under the Innovative Economy Operational Program.
Ludwika Tomala (PAP)
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