2017 CVM News: Toshimitsu Kawate's Big Pore Theory could cure chronic pain

Abstract

The news item from the Cornell Chronicle is about: College researchers have produced for the first time an image of P2X7, a receptor associated with chronic pain. Visualizing the shape of the receptor has also allowed them to make a second groundbreaking discovery: They observed that five painkiller molecules they tested did not bind the receptor at the place they expected, which could explain why these painkillers lack efficacy in human patients. This discovery, published Dec. 9, 2016, in the journal eLife, lays the foundations to create targeted and effective molecules to manage chronic pain.