Cytokines are small chemicals released by immune system to help fight infection. They make one achy and tired, as some feel after they have had a vaccine shot. I have written how many diseases (chronic pain, diabets, alzheimer’s) are going to be found to have cytokine abnormalities:
Cytokine Inflammation Diseases Will Be the Diseases of the 21st Century
Now it looks that the pain of acute pancreatitis pain can be blocked by a simple oral interleukin-6 inhibitor.
Reversal of pancreatitis-induced pain by an orally available, small molecule interleukin-6 receptor antagonist
Marina Vardanyan a,1, Ohannes K. Melemedjian a, Theodore J. Price a, Michael H. Ossipov a, Josephine Lai a, Ed Roberts b, Terrence L. Boos c, Jeffrey R. Deschamps d, Arthur E. Jacobson c, Kenner C. Rice c, Frank Porreca
Pain 2010 in press abstract here- High levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) cytokines are released during the inflammatory process
- “Intramuscular, intradermal, intracerebroventricular, or intrathecal injection of IL-6 induces allodynia or hyperalgesia in rats” – the stuff hurts
Pancreatitis represents one of the most severe pains possible – and it penetrates to the very gut level.
- IL-6 contributes to “various autoimmune and inflammatory diseases”:
- rheumatoid arthritis (RA)
- systemic-onset juvenile chronic arthritis (JCA),
- osteoporosis
- psoriasis
- insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus
- inflammatory bowel disease
- acute pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer
- Interestingly, IL-6 high levels seen in certain cancers:
- Lymphoid and non-lymphoid cells such as
- T cells,
- B cells,
- monocytes,
- pancreatic acinar cells,
- fibroblasts,
- keratinocytes,
- endothelial cells,
- mesangial cells and
- several tumor cells
- myeloma
- hypernephroma cells
- Lymphoid and non-lymphoid cells such as
- TB-2-08, derived from extracts of Chinese toad skin, was found to antagonize the effects of interleukin- 6
- In animals, experimentally induced pancreatitis was induced. Pain was relieved with oral doses of this agent.
- “Strategies targeting IL-6 actions through small molecule antagonists may offer novel approaches to improve the therapy of chronic pancreatitis and other chronic pain states.” wow something new under the horizon
Interleukin -10 has anti-inflammatory properties and a animal based gene therapy affecting spine helped prevent chemotherapy paclitaxel-induced neuropathic changes:
Brain Behav Immun. 2007 Jul;21(5):686-98. Epub 2006 Dec 15.
Intrathecal interleukin-10 gene therapy attenuates paclitaxel-induced mechanical allodynia and proinflammatory cytokine expression in dorsal root ganglia in rats.
Ledeboer A, Jekich BM, Sloane EM, Mahoney JH, Langer SJ, Milligan ED, Martin D, Maier SF, Johnson KW, Leinwand LA, Chavez RA, Watkins LR. free article here
Comment- manipulation of cytokine interleukins will be a new milestone in treatment of chronic pain – but I wouldn’t be licking chinese toads anytime soon…