Are tinnitus and chronic pain alike? Very much so, believes pain researcher Prof. Peter McNaughton from King’s College London. He discovered a drug that works through ion channels on both chronic pain and tinnitus.
Peter also talks about his rather controversial belief that tinnitus is a peripheral rather than central phenomenon, meaning that it originates in the ear and/or other outer areas of the nervous system, rather than in the brain. If he is right, this would open up new avenues for treatment.
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Skip to: 00:00 Is Tinnitus Like Pain?
“And it did seem to me that tinnitus was rather like pain.”
Skip to: 08:48 Mechanisms of Chronic Pain & Tinnitus
Skip to: 16:52 Ion Channels
“If you want to treat pain or neuropathic pain or tinnitus, what you want is a drug which is peripherally restricted, which doesn’t enter the central nervous system.”
Skip to: 25:14 Could HCN2 Inhibitor Drugs Work on Tinnitus?
Skip to: 28:44 Relation to Similar Research Projects
Skip to: 35:05 Drug Discovery Process
“Drug discovery, as I discovered myself, is extremely hard.”
Skip to: 44:51 Getting Pharma Companies to Invest
Skip to: 53:59 How Quickly Can Peter’s Drug Come to Market?
“To take these ideas right from the laboratory bench into clinical practice and actually to give people relief from tinnitus would be absolutely wonderful for me. That would be my dream, would be my absolute dream.”
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