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Does frog toxin represent a giant leap for treatment of pain?
Gastroenterology News continued
Budget Outlook Bright for Biomedical Research s President Clinton’s proposed fiscal year 1999 budget is debated on Capitol Hill, the outlook for biomedical research appears bright. The President has proposed an increase of 8.4% for National Institutes of
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Does Frog Toxin Represent a Giant Leap for Treatment of Pain? he published report that, in animal models, a nonopioid analgesic was as successful in blocking severe pain as morphine (without the side effects of withdrawal and physical dependence) is being greeted with cautious optimism. ‘‘This is a novel approach to a significant problem,’’ says Emeran Mayer of UCLA/CURE. ‘‘It’s quite promising, but it’s early.’’ The paper by an Abbott Laboratories team, published in the January 2 issue of Science, reports on the compound ABT-594, a potent neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor ligand isolated from the skin of Ecuadorian frogs. Across a series of different animal models, the drug was found to be as effective as morphine in its pain-killing properties. Moreover, through repeated uses, it did not appear to induce the opioid’s unwanted side effects. Mayer believes the new approach, assuming it isn’t found to produce significant long-term side effects in humans, could have widespread clinical applications. ‘‘It hasn’t been evaluated for visceral pain, but based on its properties — that it appears to interfere with substance P release in the spinal cord and with activation of the body’s own antinociceptor systems, similar to what mor-
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Health funding — less than the 15% hike sought by the Ad Hoc Group for Medical Research Funding, but significant nonetheless. ‘‘The goal is to double the NIH budget over the next 5 years, and the ad hoc group is suggesting that this could happen with 15% increases each year,’’ explains Joel L. Levine,
chair of AGA’s public affairs and advocacy committee. ‘‘This is a very ambitious goal.’’ Meanwhile, the proposed VA budget would represent a 10% increase, which Levine believes is indicative of the trend within the VA toward more clinical research addressing the medical problems specific to the veterans population.
phine does — you would predict that it want to give has to be devoid of any will also affect visceral pain, both func- significant long-term side effects,’’ he tional and organic,’’ he says. says. ‘‘This could be something that ‘‘The medication could potentially we have sought for a long time. But in be used as adjuvant therapy early in general, the side effects will appear the course of inflammatory bowel dis- later in the course [of studies].’’ ease, during endoscopic procedures, and for other acute and chronic inflammatory GI disorders,’’ Mayer adds. ‘‘Whether it would work equally well for functional disorders remains to be determined, because even with opioids, we don’t really know enough about how those disorders are susceptible to treatment,’’ says Mayer, who notes that such an application would have the widest impact. But Mayer is awaiting the outcome of long-term studies before becoming overly excited. ‘‘For a paTwo different pharmacological approaches to pain control. The left tient who has a side shows the traditional pathway acting through activation of disorder that isn’t opiate receptors and the right side shows the new pathway acting fatal,anythingyou’d through activation of cholinergic, nicotinic receptors.-
Budget Outlook Bright for Biomedical Research s President Clinton’s proposed fiscal year 1999 budget is debated on Capitol Hill, the outlook for biomedical research appears bright. The President has proposed an increase of 8.4% for National Institutes of
A
Does Frog Toxin Represent a Giant Leap for Treatment of Pain? he published report that, in animal models, a nonopioid analgesic was as successful in blocking severe pain as morphine (without the side effects of withdrawal and physical dependence) is being greeted with cautious optimism. ‘‘This is a novel approach to a significant problem,’’ says Emeran Mayer of UCLA/CURE. ‘‘It’s quite promising, but it’s early.’’ The paper by an Abbott Laboratories team, published in the January 2 issue of Science, reports on the compound ABT-594, a potent neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor ligand isolated from the skin of Ecuadorian frogs. Across a series of different animal models, the drug was found to be as effective as morphine in its pain-killing properties. Moreover, through repeated uses, it did not appear to induce the opioid’s unwanted side effects. Mayer believes the new approach, assuming it isn’t found to produce significant long-term side effects in humans, could have widespread clinical applications. ‘‘It hasn’t been evaluated for visceral pain, but based on its properties — that it appears to interfere with substance P release in the spinal cord and with activation of the body’s own antinociceptor systems, similar to what mor-
T
430
Health funding — less than the 15% hike sought by the Ad Hoc Group for Medical Research Funding, but significant nonetheless. ‘‘The goal is to double the NIH budget over the next 5 years, and the ad hoc group is suggesting that this could happen with 15% increases each year,’’ explains Joel L. Levine,
chair of AGA’s public affairs and advocacy committee. ‘‘This is a very ambitious goal.’’ Meanwhile, the proposed VA budget would represent a 10% increase, which Levine believes is indicative of the trend within the VA toward more clinical research addressing the medical problems specific to the veterans population.
phine does — you would predict that it want to give has to be devoid of any will also affect visceral pain, both func- significant long-term side effects,’’ he tional and organic,’’ he says. says. ‘‘This could be something that ‘‘The medication could potentially we have sought for a long time. But in be used as adjuvant therapy early in general, the side effects will appear the course of inflammatory bowel dis- later in the course [of studies].’’ ease, during endoscopic procedures, and for other acute and chronic inflammatory GI disorders,’’ Mayer adds. ‘‘Whether it would work equally well for functional disorders remains to be determined, because even with opioids, we don’t really know enough about how those disorders are susceptible to treatment,’’ says Mayer, who notes that such an application would have the widest impact. But Mayer is awaiting the outcome of long-term studies before becoming overly excited. ‘‘For a paTwo different pharmacological approaches to pain control. The left tient who has a side shows the traditional pathway acting through activation of disorder that isn’t opiate receptors and the right side shows the new pathway acting fatal,anythingyou’d through activation of cholinergic, nicotinic receptors.-