SARS-CoV-2 infection can relieve pain

According to a new study, SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can relieve pain.

Rajesh Khanna, a professor at the University of Arizona School of Medicine in Tucson, explains why this finding has few or no symptoms, even though nearly half of all people infected with COVID-19 can spread the disease. It may be.

“It makes a lot of sense to me that the reason for the relentless epidemic of COVID-19 is that in the early stages, the pain is suppressed and everything is walking around as if nothing were wrong. “I do,” says Kanna. ..

“You’re infected with the virus, but you don’t feel sick because the pain is gone. It’s very valuable if you can prove that this pain relief is causing the further spread of COVID-19. . “

On September 10, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the latest data, which estimates that 50% of COVID-19 infections occur before the onset. Symptoms 40% of COVID-19 infections are asymptomatic.

“This study raises the likelihood that SARS-CoV-2 spike protein will reduce pain as an early symptom of COVID-19, because it silences the body’s pain signaling pathways.” Said Michael D. Dake, Senior Vice President of. University of Arizona Health Sciences.

“The University of Arizona Health Sciences Researcher at the Center for Comprehensive Pain and Addiction continues to explore new ways to combat opioid epidemics, so we can take advantage of this unique discovery to take advantage of a new class of pain treatments. I’m exploring. “

SARS-CoV-2 and pain relief

The virus infects host cells via protein receptors on the cell membrane. Early in the pandemic, scientists established that the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein uses the angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor to enter the body. However, in June, two papers submitted to the preprint server bioRxiv pointed to neuropilin-1 as the second receptor for SARS-CoV-2.

“For the past 15 years, my lab has been studying proteins and pathway complexes involved in the treatment of downstream pain, which caught our eye. Neuropilin“Kanna says. “So we took a step back and realized that this could probably mean that the spike protein was involved in some pain treatment.”

“We have a pandemic and there is an opioid epidemic. They are in conflict. Our findings have a huge impact on both.”

Many biological pathways signal the body to feel pain. One works through a protein named Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor-A (VEGF-A). It plays an essential role in the growth of blood vessels, but is also associated with diseases such as cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and more recently COVID-19.

Like the lock key, when VEGF-A binds to the receptor neuropilin, a series of events are initiated, causing neuronal hyperexcitability and pain. Kanna and his team found that the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein binds to neuropilin at exactly the same location as VEGF-A.

With that knowledge, they conducted a series of experiments in a laboratory and rodent model to test the hypothesis that the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein acts on the VEGF-A / neuropilin pain pathway. They used VEGF-A as a trigger to induce neuronal excitability, which caused pain and added the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.

” Spike protein It completely reversed VEGF-induced pain signaling, “says Khana. “It didn’t matter if you used a very high dose of spikes or a very low dose. It completely reversed the pain.”

Pandemic-Opioid epidemic clash

Kanna is working with immunologists and virologists to study the role of neuropilin in the spread of COVID-19.

His laboratory will consider neuropilin as a new target for non-opioid analgesia. During the study, Kanna tested an existing small molecule neuropilin inhibitor developed to suppress tumor growth in certain cancers and relieved the same pain as the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein when bound to neuropilin. I found that it provides.

“We are working on the design of small molecules for neuropilin, especially natural compounds, which may be important for pain relief,” says Kanna.

“We have a pandemic and there is an opioid epidemic. They are in conflict. Our findings have a huge impact on both. SARS-CoV-2 tells us about the spread of the virus. Yes, COVID-19 is also considering neuropyrin as a new non-opioid method to combat the opioid epidemic. “

Studies will appear in the journal pain..

Source: University of Arizona