Monday, May 21, 2007

Potential drug for chronic pain?

A new era in pain research may be coming. A particular class of sodium nerve channels (resistant to tetrodotoxin) are central in generating pain signals. Extensive screening for drugs that block this channel have yielded A-803467, a furan-amide. Jarvis et al. show that this drug attenuates neuropathic and inflammatory pain in a rat model. Chronic pain affects about 1.5 million people worldwide, and is currently treated with sodium channel blockers originally developed as anticonvulsants or antiarrhythmics. While beneficial for some patients, their clinical usefulness has been limited.

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  1. State lawmakers are considering a crackdown on people who use or sell products designed to help avoid positive drug tests that can cost drug users jobs or put them behind bars. A House judiciary committee voted 13-0 Thursday for a measure that would make it a Class 4 felony to use, sell, or make products that can provide false urine samples. Violators would also be fined $1,000, well said by the last findrxonline bill being debated at this time. The bill now heads to the full House. Supporters say some companies are profiting by blatantly helping people fix drug tests under the guise that the tests are unfair and give unpredictable results. The Internet has made the products even more popular and easily available said a Republican sponsoring the measure. Companies advertise drugs that can mask the presence of illicit substances in urine, blood, hair follicles, saliva and even sweat. They also sell synthetic urine. In the case of the Whizzinator, users are provided with dehydrated urine that they can reconstitute with water and emit through a device they wear on an undergarment resembling a jock strap. Officials with Puck Technology, the California company that makes the Whizzinator, refused to comment on the proposed legislation. Eddy said people caught using the products can now lose their jobs but can't be charged with a crime. "We are supporting an industry that shouldn't exist," Eddy said. "It clearly should not be something that this state allows." The bill is HB3978.

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