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Nature Medicine 14, 1313 - 1315 (2008)
doi:10.1038/nm1208-1313

Breaking the pain connection

Catherine J Pallen1

  1. Catherine J. Pallen is in the Department of Pediatrics and the Child & Family Research Institute, University of British Columbia, 950 West Twenty-Eighth Avenue, Vancouver, British Columbia V5Z 4H4, Canada.
    e-mail: cpallen@interchange.ubc.ca


A small peptide eases pain in several types of mouse models. The peptide targets a protein interaction within a pain-mediating complex—containing the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor—without affecting normal physiological processes (pages 1325–1332).


Current treatments for long-term persistent pain often fall short. Chronic pain responds poorly to conventional analgesics, and the tricyclic antidepressants and anticonvulsant drugs that are in present use do not efficiently manage its many forms1.

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