A Natural Analgesic for Chronic Pain

A letter published in the journal of Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy brings to light a potential new tool to combat chronic pain. Conolidine, used in traditional Chinese medicine, is a natural analgesic alkaloid that targets the atypical chemokine receptor ACKR3. Researchers say it offers “alternative therapeutic avenues for the treatment of chronic pain.”

Conolidine “may inhibit the scavenging functions of ACKR3, consequently increasing the availability of pain relief-inducing endogenous opioid peptides for the classical opioid receptors.” The letter concludes that, “the discovery of the potential mode of action of conolidine and its activity on ACKR3 is a significant step forward towards a more exhaustive understanding of its role in pain regulation, bearing great potential for novel drug development against chronic pain.”

 

Read the journal article.

Other Categories:

• chronic pain

• medication

• medication management

• pain management

• pain therapeutics

• polypharmacy

• rational polypharmacy