A new treatment could revolutionise back pain treatment by targeting its root cause – inflammatory 'zombie' cells – according to recent research on mice.
A team of scientists, led by researchers at McGill University, Canada, discovered that a combination of two drugs, o-Vanillin and RG-7112, could clear zombie cells from the spines of mice, reducing signs of pain and inflammation.
“Our findings are exciting because it suggests we might be able to treat back pain in a completely new way, by removing the cells driving the problem, not just masking the pain,” said senior author Prof Lisbet Haglund, from McGill’s Department of Surgery.
Zombie cells, otherwise known as senescent cells, don’t behave like most other cells in the body. Rather than dividing and dying to make way for new cells, they linger.
As we age, these zombie cells accumulate inside us and can cause inflammation, pain and damage to the spine.
For the hundreds of millions of adults affected by back pain around the world, the effects of zombie cells can only be masked and muffled by current medications.
But this new treatment would clear those lingering zombie cells, reducing back pain by treating its root cause.
The McGill scientists discovered this new potential treatment by experimenting on mice that had been genetically engineered to develop spinal damage and lower back pain at seven months old.
The researchers gave these mice different doses of two drugs: o-Vanillin and RG-7112. Some mice only received one drug, and others received both.
RG-7112 is a drug that was already known to clear out zombie cells in other contexts – namely, osteoarthritis and cancer research – but hadn’t been used to treat back pain before.
And o-Vanillin is a natural compound derived from turmeric, known for its anti-inflammatory properties, that hadn’t been used against zombie cells previously.
After eight weeks of medication, the mice who had been treated with both drugs at high doses had the lowest levels of zombie cells, inflammation and pain.
Mice treated with only one of the drugs seemed to benefit, but not as much as when both drugs were combined.
“The big question now, is whether these drugs can have the same effect in humans,” said Haglund.
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