Researchers at the Kolling Institute have taken an important step towards the development of safer, non-addictive pain medications by increasing our understanding of spinal cord pain signalling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This valuable progress has been recognised internationally with publication in the Journal of Physiology, a leading scientific journal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The findings follow the latest figures indicating more than 20 per cent of the population experience chronic pain, impacting their ability to work, care for families and generally function.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr Karin Aubrey said many people currently rely on opioids, like morphine and codeine, to reduce their pain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cWe know however, that these medications have serious side effects and in many cases offer only limited help,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur team, including senior researcher Dr Yo Otsu, is committed to advancing our understanding of how pain signals travel through the body, so that we can use this information to develop safe, new medications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis unique study used advanced techniques to unravel the spinal pain control circuit, and determine how opioids affect a key descending pain pathway. Interestingly, this pathway can enhance and reduce spinal signalling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur spinal cords are an incredible information highway, responsible for relaying sensory, motor and pain information to the brain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe connections that make up the circuits of the spinal cord are all jumbled together and it\u2019s difficult to unravel them and map how each connection contributes to controlling pain signals in the spinal cord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn this study, we\u2019ve identified how a particular point in the spinal pain circuit is controlled by opioids, giving us a clearer picture of how a good pain medication might work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe currently have a reasonable understanding of the brain and pain circuits, but there is still so much more to discover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEach one of us has about 86 billion cells in our brains called neurons, which is approximately half the number of stars in the Milky Way. Essentially our heads are a small galaxy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis gives some context to the complexities of the brain and pain circuits, and the challenges involved in making significant scientific progress and advances in treatments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are encouraged by the progress we\u2019ve made and the deeper understanding we now have around the spinal cord pain signalling and potential targets for new therapies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur findings have broadened our understanding of how the spinal cord pain circuit is organised and affected by opioids.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
This project was made possible with the support of the Ernest Heine Family Foundation and the Pain Foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2103,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"research-group-tax":[],"primary-research-area":[],"class_list":["post-2102","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/thumb_Blog_World-first-discovery_w550_h380_fcrop.webp",550,380,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/thumb_Blog_World-first-discovery_w550_h380_fcrop-150x150.webp",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/thumb_Blog_World-first-discovery_w550_h380_fcrop-300x207.webp",300,207,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/thumb_Blog_World-first-discovery_w550_h380_fcrop.webp",550,380,false],"large":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/thumb_Blog_World-first-discovery_w550_h380_fcrop.webp",550,380,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/thumb_Blog_World-first-discovery_w550_h380_fcrop.webp",550,380,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/thumb_Blog_World-first-discovery_w550_h380_fcrop.webp",550,380,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"ict-wordpress-support@sydney.edu.au","author_link":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/author\/ict-wordpress-supportsydney-edu-au\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Researchers at the Kolling Institute have taken an important step towards the development of safer, non-addictive pain medications by increasing our understanding of spinal cord pain signalling. This valuable progress has been recognised internationally with publication in the Journal of Physiology, a leading scientific journal. The findings follow the latest figures indicating more than 20…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/2102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/2102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5429,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/2102\/revisions\/5429"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2102"},{"taxonomy":"research-group-tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-group-tax?post=2102"},{"taxonomy":"primary-research-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/primary-research-area?post=2102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}