An NUI Galway research team hopes to end the curse of chronic pain by utilising the body's own powerful painkilling systems.
Their success could help the estimated 500,000 people in Ireland who suffer chronic pain on a daily basis.
The scientist who will lead a five-person research team is a recipient of the President of Ireland Young Researcher Award, worth more than €900,000 and organised by Science Foundation Ireland.
Dr David Finn of NUI Galway's department of physiology claimed the prize despite tough international competition. It is open to promising young scientists from around the world who received their PhDs no more than five years ago.
"We are interested in a phenomenon called fear-induced analgesia," Finn explains. The body has the ability to block out pain sensations despite even profound injuries in situations of high stress or fear.
"If you think of soldiers on the battlefield, they have the ability to suppress pain after injury. It is an evolutionary response," he says. Humans have it, but so too do other mammals.
"My work is trying to understand the neurophysiological mechanisms involved," he says. "If we can understand what can give you this profound suppression of pain, we could develop powerful new analgesics."
There are pressing reasons for studying this area given the large numbers of people who experience pain on a daily basis. One in six people suffering from pain has lost a job because of their condition and pain costs the Irish economy more than €1.2 million a week in disability benefit payments alone, according to a 2003 study.
Much work was done on the endogenous "opioid" pain suppression system in the 1980s and 1990s and associated biochemicals in the body such as endorphins and dimorphins. "These are the substances that work at the opioid receptors," Finn says. "They become available in higher levels in times of fear or stress."
His own work will focus on another related system, the endogenous cannabinoid system. This system responds to the chemical substances in cannabis and also synthetic cannabis-like drugs including THC. "Moreover, humans and other animals possess cannabis-like substances in the brain called endocannabinoids which form part of the endogenous cannabinoid system."
Increased knowledge of how this system works is leading to new therapeutic targets for the treatment of pain in conditions such as multiple sclerosis and neuropathic pain. Substances such as THC can provide pain relief but in turn also have psychoactive effects. "We are taking a three-pronged approach," he says. The team is looking at the behavioural neuroscience behind the pain suppression provided by stress, anxiety and the cannabinoid system. It will study the neurochemical response, the substances produced to provide pain suppression.
The team will also take a molecular approach, using proteomics to identify proteins that are up or down regulated during stress and pain suppression.
Finn also plans to take forward existing work on identifying the brain areas affected by the pain suppression systems.
The five-year SFI funding will allow him to bring two postdoctoral researchers and a post graduate researcher onto the team and these are currently being sought.