Some great news for back pain sufferers. According to researchers at The University of Cambridge, they say they have identified the gene behind back pain, which could lead to effective treatment for back pain sufferers within a decade.
When they removed the HCN2 gene for pain sensitive nerves in mice, it stopped any chronic pain but did not affect acute pain.
Professor Peter McNaughton who is the lead author of the study said 'many genes play a critical role in pain sensations, but in most cases interfering with them simply abolishes all pain, or even sensation'.
Researchers say that their findings open up the possibility that new drugs could be developed to block the protein produced by the HCN2 gene, which regulates chronic pain.