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Anesthesia drugs used for cutting pain during surgery may paradoxically
increase pain and discomfort after the surgery, a team of researchers from Georgetown University Medical
Center reported in the June
23 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The study, funded by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society
and the National Institutes of Health, revealed that “noxious” anesthesia drugs
(the basic and commonly used drugs in the market) activate and then sensitize
specific receptors on neurons in the peripheral nervous system, known as TRPV1
and TRPA1.
These receptors are often expressed together and are known
to react to irritants like garlic and wasabi and they are also activated by the
“noxious” drugs.
Gerard Ahern, an assistant professor in the department of
pharmacology and lead author of the study along with his colleagues discovered
that side effects of noxious drugs are caused by the way drugs affect nerve
cell receptor TRPA1, a receptor highly activated when exposed to noxious drugs causing
burning pain after the surgery.
During an experiment, the researchers tested noxious drugs on
mice lacking TRPA1 receptors. They found that these mice did not feel any pain.
Then they tested both noxious and sevoflurane drugs (drugs targeting brain and
spinal cord with no side effects but considered not that effective) on normal
mice. They found that those exposed to noxious drugs experienced pain and
inflammation several hours after being exposed to the anesthetic.
These findings made Ahern state that “the choice of anesthetic
appears to be an important determinant of post-operative pain. We hope these
findings are ultimately helpful in providing more comfort to patients.”
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