Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

Vidcast:  https://www.instagram.com/p/DSBQslfDzAp/Effective pain-killing can be fraught with complications.  The non-narcotic NSAIDs like ibuprofen and aspirin irritate gastrointestinal linings, trigger ulcers, and cause bleeding.  The narcotics carry the risk of addiction.Is there a better approach?  Neuroscientists at Tulane University and the University of Texas-Dallas think so.  Studying how nerves transmit pain, they find that nerves connected to the source of pain release a so-called extra cellular enzyme VLK, vertebrate lonesome kinase, that is necessary for transmission of pain signals.Then, using a mouse model, the researchers show that depleting the supply of VLK or inhibiting its function significantly reduced surgical pain sensations while leaving other sensory and motor functions unaffected.  Increasing the concentration of VLK intensified pain perception.This discovery opens the door for developing non-NSAID and non-narcotic medications that effectively mute pain without undesirable side effects