Breakthrough at McMaster University in chronic pain research

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Elise Copps reports on what could be a game-changing breakthrough at McMaster University. Scientists have discovered a way to grow neurons from a standard blood sample. For patients who experience certain types of pain, this could be life changing.

The scientists plan to use these cells to experiment with innovative pain control treatments.

Chronic pain is debilitating and widespread. It affects about one in five Canadians. But we don’t understand it well because the cells that send and receive pain signals are entwined deep inside us.

“It’s hard for scientists and physicians later on to get access to a very complex tissue that’s integrated in our body.” Dr. Mick Bhatia’s discovery could be a game changer. He and his team at McMaster University have successfully created neurons out of blood cells – essentially building a living lab to study chronic pain. They take a small blood sample and add it to a gene that makes the cells adaptable. “We culture those cells, grow those cells in a petri dish under conditions that allow neural cells to thrive.”

They can create both central neurons, like the ones in our brain and spinal cord and peripheral neurons, like the ones in the rest of our body that feel pain. Testing potential treatments on both types would help develop medications that soothe peripheral neurons without the side effects current drugs have on central neurons. “They have addictive properties, and you don’t feel pain in the periphery but you also have a general sleepy, drowsiness effect.”

Because the blood samples contain patient specific DNA, so do the neurons they grow. “We capture their genetic makeup, their DNA. And I think this is a good step toward what we refer to as personalized medicine or precision medicine. Why does one drug work for one person but didn’t work for me…”

Dr. Bhatia believes these tiny complex cells will be a window into ailments that have puzzled pain specialists for decades.