Health Issue - Painkiller

Painkiller from body's heat

messenger?

Washington: Researchers have discovered the body's own "heat messenger" , which helps nerves feel pain, and said that they hope to use it to design a new, safer class of painkillers.

         They found heat activates basic fatty acids similar to capsaicin, the compound that gives chili peppers their kick, and found two potential ways to block the sensation. "For the first time we have the opportunity to try to block pain at its source, " Kenneth Hargreaves of The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, who led the strdy, said.

         They are now working to develop either a pill that people could take to block the effects of these natural "heat messengers" , or engineered immune system proteins called monoclonal antibodies that could be infused to mop them up.