Science publishes an international research with the participation of the UVa, which can help to design new non addictive treatment against the pain
The Science magazine has published this Thursday, the 17th of July, a research developed by an international team, with the leading part of the Innate Immunity and Inflammation Group from the Biology and Molecular Genetics Institute (IBGM by its abbreviation in Spanish), joint center of the University of Valladolid and the CSIC (The Spanish National Research Council), in which it is described a molecular mechanism which could help to design new analgesics (synthetic compounds which produce the same effects than the opioids).
Thanks to this research, developed in vitro in human leukocytes and with genetically modified mice, it has been discovered a new function of the IREA1 endoplasmic reticulum, which acts as inductor of the production of prostaglandins, mediators of the inflammatory reaction, which are mainly produced in the leukocytes and regulate the level of response to pain.
The contribution to this research is the discovery of a potentially bullseye to treat the pain without the necessity of using opioids, whose consumption is turning into countries such as United States in a real public health issue. “If we find a drug which act by this mechanism, this would help to reduce the opioids effects specially in people with chronic pain”-explains the professor Mariano Sánchez Crespo, who has led these researchers in the Institute of Biology and Molecular Genetics (joint center of the University of Valladolid-CSIC) and he coordinates the Innate Immunity and Inflammation Group, from which the researchers Nieves Fernández García, Carmen Herrero Sánchez, Cristina Mancebo Tejero, Sara Alonso Martín and José Javier Fernández take part.
In this research five groups of American researchers have taken part and they were led by the researcher of Cornell University from New York, Juan R. Cubillos-Ruiz, with whom the Innate Immunity and Inflammation Group of the UVa cooperates since 2015.
“What we wanted was to understand how the stress from the endoplasmic reticulum affects the functioning of the cells in the immune system and, especially the production of some cytokines (molecules released by the leucocytes which act as mediators of the inflammatory reaction)”- explains Mariano Crespo.
