The pain in your nerves may feel like it is shooting, stabbing, or scorching you.
Managing chronic pain is incredibly challenging, and the current drug options are severely limited by their potentially fatal side effects. Short-term pain relief is best achieved with opioids such as morphine and fentanyl; however, these drugs pose serious risks of addiction, abuse, and overdose, making them unsuitable for treating chronic pain.
To date, there is no permanent solution to chronic pain, and most painkillers come with undesirable side effects.
New methods of relieving chronic pain are desperately needed. People require medications that are both safer and more effective.
Recent preclinical studies in mice suggest that a single injection of modified Botox may provide long-term pain relief for people with chronic nerve injury pain.
Most importantly, this treatment wouldn’t increase the risk of paralysis or addiction like many pain medications do, making it easier for people to take them long-term to alleviate their chronic pain.
Models of human pain show that these novel Botulinum molecules are effective at decreasing pain-like behavior. Taking this tack has the potential to pave the way for new pain treatments, which could increase the standard of living for millions of people who suffer from chronic pain. There is no risk of paralysis or addiction when using this prolonged form of botulinum neurotoxin to treat chronic pain.
The findings of the new study show that a single injection of the precisely modified botulinum neurotoxin provides long-lasting relief in animal models without adverse effects.
Researchers were able to successfully redesign Botox using Clostridium botulinum components, resulting in a biopharmaceutical with novel properties and no unacceptable side effects.
The research team was able to produce Botox in an optimally elongated configuration by disassembling it into two parts and then reassembling it in a Lego-like fashion.
Unlike current Botox® and related Dysport® injections, which can effectively paralyze muscles, the elongated botulinum biopharmaceutical blocked the pain-related nerves without paralyzing muscles.
Botox’s paralytic activity has been a barrier to its use as a pain reliever up until this point, despite the drug’s enormous potential for use in clinical settings.
The research team showed that the modified neurotoxin was effective at blocking nerve impulses without causing paralysis.
It’s estimated that 20% of the population is dealing with chronic pain, and this technique has the potential to provide relief for at least that long (four to five months) with a single Botox injection.
Currently, it is necessary to conduct tests to determine whether or not a single injection of the novel nonparalytic blocker at the site of pain can provide humans with pain relief for several months.
Millions of people all over the world suffer from chronic pain, and it is hoped that the modified Botox will help them lead better lives.
Dentox is a course designed to educate medical professionals on the best practices for administering Botox injections. Courses for live patients can be found at https://dentox.com/live-courses/, while online options can be found at https://dentox.com/all-courses/botox-training/.
