When it comes to treating pain, a new study suggests
traditional Chinese medicine has been getting it right for thousands of years.
A chemical compound found in the underground tubers of the Corydalis
plant can effectively alleviate three different types of pain in mice,
according to a paper published Thursday in the journal Current Biology.
The study also shows that mice do not build up a
resistance to the naturally occurring compound, which means it could one day be
used for managing chronic pain in humans.
The pain-relieving compound is known as
dehydrocorybulbine (DHCB). It was isolated by Chinese researchers as part of
the herbalome project -- an ambitious endeavor launched in 2008 to catalog all
the active ingredients in traditional Chinese medicines.
The Corydalis plant is a member of the poppy family. It
grows mainly in central eastern China, and has been used in Chinese medicine
for centuries. Its tubers are dug up, ground, and then boiled in hot vinegar. The
resulting medicine is often prescribed to treat headaches and back pain.
"This medicine goes back thousands of years, and it is still
around because it works," said Olivier Civelli, a pharmacologist at UC
Irvine and one of the authors of the study. "The question is, what makes
it work. There are many compounds inside this plant."
For this study, Civelli collaborated with the lead researcher on the
herbalome project--Xinmiao Liang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian in
northeast China. Liang's group extracted chemicals from the plant and then sent
more than 80 of them to Civelli's lab in Irvine to see which ones had pain
relieving properties.
Civelli and his team determined that at least one of those chemicals
-- DHCB -- was an effective pain reliever in mice, but they were surprised to
find that it used D2 dopamine receptors, rather than morphine receptors.
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