Targeting sodium channels — challenges for acute pain and the leap to chronic pain, 2025, Alsaloum, Vasylyev, Waxman.

[voner]

I am still reading this… this is a very good summary by some leading researchers about the difficulties and problems they have encountered in trying to develop non-opioid painkillers using the sodium channel Nav1.8. It’s been a difficult and perplexing process and there’s an immense amount of pressure to come up with something that is non-opioid. There was also an immense amount that is still unknown.

here is one of the summary boxes:

Challenges to clinical studies on new pain therapeutics

• Pain is clinically complex and variable with multiple components.
• The numerical rating scale for pain is subjective and noisy.
• Currently, no validated biomarker for pain exists.
• The placebo response is large.
• Animal studies are not predictive of human response.
• Multiple forms of pain exist, even for neuropathic pain.
• Recruitment of participants can be challenging.

here is a link to the abstract.

Targeting sodium channels — challenges for acute pain and the leap to chronic pain - Nature Reviews Neurology

Earlier this year, the Nav1.8 channel inhibitor suzetrigine became the first new pain therapeutic to be approved in 20 years. Here, Waxman et al. discuss the challenges of improving Nav1.8-targeted relief for acute pain and the translation to chronic pain.

www.nature.com

The full text appears to be behind a pay wall. I obtained a copy of the paper from the lead author (on Research Gate). You can contact me for a copy.