Chillis Help Numb Pain

By Ryan Curtis, Montana

Researchers at Harvard Medical School have used extracts from chillis to develop a new anesthetic that neutralises pain without numbing the senses. It utilises capsaicin, which is the element in chilli peppers that causes burning, to target pain pathways.

The scientists' "hot" new combination of capsaicin and QX314, a type of local anaesthetic, blocks the function of pain fibers without inhibiting other sensations. Clifford Woolf explained the technique and the substance in his keynote lecture: “Using Pain to Block Pain.” The biggest surprise for the audience was that the title was not a typo.

QX314 was named after the device that Marvin the Martian tries to use to destroy the Earth, minus the “space modulator” part. On its own, it is unable to pass through nerve cell membranes and is therefore entirely useless. That hasn’t stopped scientists from experimenting with it, however. Professor Woolf has discovered that combining it with capsaicin, which has a special receptor for pain sensing cells, enables QX314 to sneak inside, numbing only these specific nerve cells and leaving the rest functioning normally.

The only drawback to this technique is that, whilst QX314 dulls pain, capsaicin causes it, so before the anaesthetic can take effect, the patient must endure the agony caused by capsaicin. This is the biochemical equivalent of smashing your hand with a hammer to take your mind off of the cobra biting your leg. To quote Professor Woolf himself: “Another way of opening the [pain] channel must be found to allow the QX314 into the cell without capsaicin causing its typical painful heat sensation.”

One wonders if the entire thing is not a plot by dentists to cause their patients even more agony.

For more of Ryan's wonderings, check out his homepage.

Or for other hot and fiery stuff, try one of these: