Adding Capsaicin Improves Anesthetic Treatment

eldavojohn writes "It's no secret what capsaicin, the fiery molecule of peppers, does to cell walls. In fact, it's now being used to open cells up to local anesthetics. Combine it with a new drug that works only from the insides of cells and you have a great system for relieving pain. From the article, 'QX-314 is known to reduce the activity of pain-sensing neurons in the nervous system and theoretically heighten pain thresholds. But there's a catch: Researchers found that "it wouldn't work from outside a nerve cell but it would work if you could get it inside," says Bruce Bean, a professor of neurobiology at Harvard Medical School and co-author of the new study."

Comments

Re:Just a thought...

[wamerocity]

I actually was reading an article about capsaicin (which is also the active ingredient in pepper spray, hence the name). One doctor once recommended that oxycontin and other opiates should have capsaicin put into the pills. People who swallowed it wouldn't taste anything different, but people who take the drugs and chop them up into a powder and then snort it have a really special surprise in store for them, similar to what this guy did with wasabi.

I'd guess people would only make that mistake once though.

Re:Cell walls?

[ragingmime]

It's no secret what capsaicin, the fiery molecule of peppers, does to cell walls.

Actually, I've studied cell biology and I have no idea what capscaicin does to cell walls (or even plasma membranes.) Come to think of it, chili pepper cells have walls, and capsaicin doesn't seem do anything to them. So maybe it is a secret after all.