Potential Arthritis Drug Falls Short; Animal Study Shows It Fails To Cut Long-Term Joint Pain

Efforts to develop a new class of chronic arthritis medications using a painkiller compound naturally produced by the body have fallen short, researchers say. A new animal-based study has shown that endomorphin, the morphine-like pain control agent in question, does not have any "observable effect" on reducing the sensitivity of arthritic joint nerves in the long run. The therapy did, however, provoke a dramatic reduction -- upwards of 75 percent -- in short-term joint hypersensitivity. "I don't think it's all negative news," said study co-author Jason J. McDougall, an associate professor in the department of physiology and biophysics at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. "We were able to block pain responses in normal joints and also in the early stages of arthritis. But clearly arthritis is a chronic long-term disease, so we were obviously disappointed that we weren't able to block the pain of long-term inflammation." The mixed findings come against the backdrop of last year's ban by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on sales of the popular cox-2 inhibitors Vioxx and Bextra due to an increased risk for cardiovascular complications associated with long-term use. The removal of the drugs has limited pain management options for millions of Americans, although a third cox-2 drug -- Celebrex -- has been allowed to remain on the market with new packaging that highlights potential risks.

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