OPTOGENICS - HEALING PAIN BY USING LIGHT

Could a beam of LIGHT eradicate pain instantly? Groundbreaking study could being relief to chronic sufferers

• Study used light to switch off pain in mice
• Could one day allow chronic pain suffers to block pain
• Technique could also treat Parkinson's disease, addiction, depression and autism

Researchers at Stanford have revealed a groundbreaking project that used beams of light to control pain in mice.  The team found they were able to switch receptors on and off, raising hopes the same technique could one day be used in humans.

In the latest study, published in Nature Biotechnology, the Stanford team first used gene therapy to install light-sensitive molecules into the nerve endings in the skin of mice.  Each animal was then placed into a small plexiglass chamber with a transparent floor.  When the researchers shined blue light through the floor, the mice flinched, cried out or licked their paws - all signs of pain.  The researchers were then able to clock the pain by bathing the mice in yellow light designed to block nerve impulses.   With the light shining, the mice didn't react to a band pinching their leg.

It relies on modifying the DNA of neurons so that they send signals—or are blocked from firing—in response to light. 

Named a 'Breakthrough of the Decade' by Science magazine in 2010, optogenetics uses light sensitive proteins to control the activity of individual neurons or specific populations of neurons. 
 

Using this approach, researchers can selectively activate or inactivate these genetically modified neurons using light, allowing unprecedented control of neuronal activity.
 

Optogenetics is now being used widely to study the mechanisms of normal brain functions, like memory and sensory perception, as well as abnormal conditions like Parkinson's disease, addiction, depression and autism.

Source - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2561582/Could-beam-LIGHT-eradicate-pain-instantly.html

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