Researchers from the University of Warsaw can boast a great success. Not only have they invented the painkiller, but they also have reason to believe that it will be a breakthrough. The basis for optimism is not insignificant. Research confirms that it is up to five thousand times more effective than the most powerful drugs with similar effects to those we currently have. Of course, the road to its commercialization is not short, but we can already talk about its enormous potential.
Really strong painkillers in the medical world are not new. Each time, however, we are dealing with solutions that are difficult to talk about as being free from defects. Usually these drugs increase the pain threshold of the patient. Patients get used to them, and so effective pain management begins to require more and more doses to the patients. Unfortunately, we are still dealing with illnesses in relation to which even the most powerful medicines fail.
Scientists from the Polish university are aware of the kind of limitations, but it turns out that the drug they invented is able to endure them. Last year, a company called Matariki Bioscience was established at the university, responsible for the search for new drugs. The substance in question is the greatest success of the company.
How does the Polish drug work?
The chemical compound representing the family of peptidomimetics has two effects. One part of the molecule is characterized by its effect on opioid receptors, so it is responsible for suppressing pain reactions. The second part, in turn, affects this receptor, which causes a signal to be sent that initiates pain. The result is a situation where the pain is cut off from both sides. On the one hand, it is calmed and inhibited, and on the other hand, the drug blocks the source that is responsible for causing it. Although a substance that does both of these things at once has been sought for a long time, until now it has not been mentioned.
Biotechnologia.pl service describing the new solution describes research conducted on animals. They show that the new substance is up to 5,000 times stronger than the substances used today. Scientists have yet to prepare for clinical trials and there is no denying that they have a lot of work ahead of them. However, it is difficult not to talk about hope for patients, who so far have been struggling with very strong pain without success.
It is assumed that the drug may be used, among other things, for neuropathic pain. However, it is also assumed that it can also help in acute trauma and even in palliative treatment, i.e. when even the strongest drugs used today seem to have no chance. Moreover, scientists hope that the drug will not have serious side effects. These hopes seem to be justified if only because of its low dose.
The innovative project has already gained recognition of the National Centre for Research and Development. It is from this source that the funding of 12.6 million zlotys came to its creators. We are not talking about the only success of Polish scientists here. Researchers from Gdansk can boast that they have developed a quick and simple test to detect cancer. In Lublin, on the other hand, a bone has been developed which, although artificial, grows like a living bone.
