Researchers Niels Eijkelkamp and Michiel van der Vlist of UMC Utrecht have received a so-called ‘ENW-M-2 grant’ of more than 700,000 euros from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). They will use that money to research how the body turns off inflammatory pain. In this way they hope to understand what goes wrong in people with chronic pain that does not go away. The ultimate goal for the long term is new treatments for chronic pain.
Pain after inflammation or tissue damage usually disappears over time. But in a significant proportion of patients with inflammatory diseases, this does not happen. They continue to suffer from pain, even after the inflammation has disappeared. In total, no less than one in five people has chronic pain. A large proportion of them have an inflammatory condition, such as joint rheumatism, osteoarthritis or an inflammatory bowel disease (such as Crohn’s disease). In order to develop new treatments for this type of persistent pain, experts must first understand how inflammatory pain normally develops. And more importantly, how this kind of pain disappears again.
Deliver energy factories
The research group of Dr Niels Eijkelkamp of the Center for Translational Immunology (CTI) has been trying for some time to understand how (chronic) pain works. At the end of last year, his group, together with the group of Prof. Linde Megaard, published a scientific article about the role that macrophages play in pain.
Macrophages are immune cells that attack and eat pathogens. “We have known for some time that these cells have many more tasks,” says Eijkelkamp. “They also play a role in turning off pain.” The researchers discovered that macrophages can deliver mitochondria (the cell’s ‘energy factories’) to nerve cells. These nerve cells transmit pain signals from the inflamed tissue, which is why a person feels pain. “We found that releasing mitochondria helps to stop the pain,” says Eijkelkamp.
Answering questions
How this works Unfortunately that is not yet clear. Eijkelkamp: “As you often see in scientific research, our study also raised questions.” With the money that NWO is now making available, the pain expert can take the next step. He will conduct lab research with immunologist Dr. Michiel van der Vlist, who knows a lot about the immune system (macrophages).
The two experts hope to better understand how the nervous system and immune system talk to each other. They will achieve this by answering a number of questions. Questions such as: how do nerve cells attract macrophages that can turn off pain? What causes macrophages to turn off pain? And what exactly changes in nerve cells when they receive mitochondria (the ‘energy factories’) from macrophages?
By answering these questions, the researchers hope to ultimately better understand how pain disappears after inflammation. “We can use that knowledge to develop new treatments for chronic pain,” says Van der Vlist. “How great would it be if we could one day help 1.5 billion people get rid of their chronic pain?”
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