US scientists have developed a gene therapy treatment which they hope could revolutionise pain relief. Pain vanished for at least three months in rats who were injected in the spine with a gene that triggers endorphins, the body’s natural pain killer. The therapy did not affect the rest of the nervous system, including the brain, potentially preventing the main side-effects of current pain relief. Studies suggest drugs do not relieve cancer pain in as many as 66% of cases. The research appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
