Chiesi contributes to pain transmission substance identification

Chiesi Farmaceutici has announced that it has contributed to efforts to identify an endogenous substance which activates an innovative pathway of pain transmission.

Published earlier this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, the relevant study is reported to contribute to the scientific understanding of the underlying mechanics of pain generation.

This understanding could potentially open up new avenues for the discovery and development of new classes of analgesic therapies for neuropathic, oncologic and inflammatory pain ill-served by existing treatments.

“An international team, coordinated by Pierangelo Geppetti (Faculty of Medicine, University of Florence, Italy) and including both researchers from the academy and the industry, has provided a relevant contribution to our understanding of the phenomena regulating the mechanism of pain generation,” Chiesi reports.

This team found that 4-hydroxy-noneal – an endogenous substance generated by the body as a result of a number of degenerative diseases – educes pain through the stimulation of the TRPA1 receptor on sensory nerve terminals.

In May 2007, Chiesi reported its financial results for the 2006 fiscal year, with the firm generating sales of 593.2 million euros (404.3 million pounds), a five per cent rise on last year’s figure.