Those of us with fibromyalgia don’t need people to tell us about the toll chronic pain takes on our lives. It not only effects us physically, but emotionally and monetarily. In the June issue of Discover, an article by Carl Zimmer describes some exciting research in his article entitled “The Brain.” Min Zhuo and his colleagues, neuroscientists at the University of Toronto have found that an area of the brain called the anterior cingulate cortex “shows especially intense activity in the scans of people with chronic pain.” But here is the good part. The researchers found that this area of the brain contains an abundant amount of an enzyme called AC1, and the researchers were able to find a compound (which they called NB001) which attached to the enzyme and stopped its activity. Here is the really cool part. When scientists “gave an oral dose of NB001 to rats suffering from chronic pain, the animals were rid of their symptoms in just 45 minutes.”
Now we know that rats are not humans, and a lot of testing still needs to be done, especially on human subjects. But the fact that the compound focused just on one area of the brain could limit the side effects seen in most current pain medications. And “the rats suffered no harm to their memory or their ability to learn.”
Now I am a pacifist, but I am totally for waging this war against chronic pain.