A study using optogenetics, mice, and beams of light and heat provides the latest insights into future treatments for conditions with otherwise uncontrollable or unexplainable chronic pain.
Though much remains to be discovered about its long-term effects, gene therapy to treat medical conditions like chronic pain brings with it both promise and controversy. A study using optogenetics, mice, and beams of light and heat provides the latest insights into future treatments for conditions with otherwise uncontrollable or unexplainable chronic pain.
Stanford University scientists injected modified viruses with light-sensitive proteins into mice nerves. When a blue light shined underneath them, the mice showed pain by crying, paw-licking, and flinching. A yellow light relieved pain caused by tight bands. They also didn’t sense hot infra-red beams right away.
One study leader said, “The fact that we can give a mouse an injection and two weeks later shine a light on its paw to change the way it senses pain is very powerful.”
9 years ago, Stanford professor Karl Deisseroth developed optogenetics – “a breakthrough technology that is giving scientists precise control over what animals feel, how they behave, and even what they think.” He also co-founded Circuit Therapeutics, one of the companies currently developing genetic tools to treat pain.
Experts caution these experimental treatments have many challenges and at least 10 years of testing ahead. The consequences of suppressing pain that often warns of dangers and giving people the control to block pain sensations are still unknown.
