NeuroDigm's Model Reveals The Reversal Of Chronic Pain

Main Category: Pain / Anesthetics
Also Included In: Neurology / Neuroscience
Article Date: 06 Feb 2008 - 2:00 PDT

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Mary Hannaman MD, president of NeuroDigm Co. in Fort Worth, Texas has confirmed that a recombinant human erythropoietin, epoetin alfa, can reverse neural changes that cause chronic pain behavior. Using their Biogenic Model of Chronic Pain™, epoetin alpha was applied once locally in micro doses to the affected nerves resulting in the reversal of pain behaviors permanently.

Many types of chronic pain are resistant to treatments, needing opiates, oral drugs, anesthetic blocks, and spinal pumps or spinal stimulators to control the pain. Some may even have the identified nerve cut to attempt to relieve pain. Dr. Hannaman says that NeuroDigm's animal model can transform the future for chronic pain patients by predicting the realistic clinical efficacy of drugs and biopharmaceuticals and enable more targeted treatments with less side effects.

NeuroDigm has developed their model to give the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and research industries a more realistic model by correlating the development of the model with the process of human tissue repair. Dr. Hannaman says many chronic pain conditions develop gradually after an injury as the tissue repairs itself and have no evidence of nerve damage.

The animal studies are supported by Dr. Hannaman's clinical experience with chronic pain patients. After identifying the specific nerve involved in a patient's pain, a single application percutaneously of very small doses of epoetin alpha to an identified site of neural inflammation can rapidly and permanently reverse the associated pain behavior including mechanical allodynia. Localized treatments have been performed with epoetin alpha in patients on many peripheral nerves including the sciatic nerve, lateral femoral cutaneous nerve and spinal accessory nerves.

NeuroDigm is a private R&D company in Fort Worth, Texas. NeuroDigm licenses proprietary models (US Patent 7015371) to enable the development of more effective treatments for chronic nerve pain. Medical devices to help in the clinical diagnosis of chronic pain are also being developed.

http://www.neurodigm.com

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