NOTTINGHAM researchers hope to have discovered a new way of blocking pain caused by osteoarthritis.
Sufferers currently have to receive steroid injections or take anti-inflammatory drugs to relieve pain.
But researchers at the Arthritis Research UK Pain Centre, based at the University of Nottingham, have now published a new study which claims blocking a protein produced by nerve cells in the human body could potentially help.
By blocking the protein, called TRPV1, within the joint, the researchers were able to reverse pain responses.
Previous clinical trials using this technique have been hampered by it causing hyperthermia.
But Dr Sara Kelly, a lecturer in neuroscience at the university, and one of the lead researchers on the project, said: “We wanted to investigate if by blocking these receptors locally within the diseased joint, could we reduce the pain caused by osteoarthritis, without the side effect of hyperthermia — and the answer is – ‘yes’.”
Professor Alan Silman, medical director of Arthritis Research UK, which funded the research, said: “We desperately need new approaches to treating the pain of osteoarthritis. Until now attempts at blocking this pathway have caused unacceptable side-effects.
“This research seems to suggest it might be possible to overcome this.”
