Health Check A breakthrough in treating chronic pain
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Aug 27, 2025 In this discussion, Dorcas Wangira, BBC Africa's health correspondent, dives into a groundbreaking gene discovery that could transform chronic pain management. She explores a decade-long study revealing that cash transfers significantly reduced child mortality in Kenya. The conversation also touches on rabies control efforts in India and the troubling paradox of fewer wildfires but more vulnerable populations. Finally, Wangira addresses the controversy surrounding the destruction of $9.7 million in contraceptives due to US policy changes.
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Pain As System Sensitisation
- Chronic neuropathic pain involves system-wide sensitisation that amplifies normal signals into severe pain.
- Professor David Bennett says this amplification happens at multiple nervous system levels and changes patients' lives profoundly.
Polyamines Linked To Pain Signalling
- Genetic variants linked to chronic pain affect a transporter that moves polyamines into neurons.
- Bennett explains altered polyamine transport likely changes ion channels and neuronal excitability, offering a new pain mechanism.
Target Polyamine Transport For New Drugs
- Develop drugs that reduce neuronal polyamine transport to dampen pain signalling.
- Bennett notes creating such targeted treatments is now possible but may take at least a decade.