New drug treatment reduces chronic pain following shingles

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

4-Feb-2014

Contact: Sam Wong sam.wong@imperial.ac.uk 44-207-594-2198 Imperial College London

A new drug treatment has been found to be effective against chronic pain caused by nerve damage, also known as neuropathic pain, in patients who have had shingles.

The researchers hope that the drug might also be effective against other causes of chronic neuropathic pain, such as diabetes, HIV, nerve injury and cancer chemotherapy, as it targets a mechanism that is not targeted by any existing therapies and has fewer side effects.

Drugs available now have limited success at treating neuropathic pain and often have unpleasant or disabling side effects.

It is estimated that around 190,000 people in the UK get shingles every year, most of them aged over 50. It is caused when a dormant viral infection of a nerve is reactivated, resulting in a painful rash. In most cases, the shingles rash lasts a few weeks, but in some cases the permanent nerve damage caused by the virus results in a chronic neuropathic pain called post-herpetic neuralgia. Around one in 10 people with shingles experiences post-herpetic neuralgia and, once established, it usually causes life-long suffering.

In a study involving 183 patients with post-herpetic neuralgia in six countries, the new drug EMA401 was found to reduce pain and did not cause any serious side effects. The findings are published in The Lancet.

Lead author Professor Andrew Rice, from the Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial College London, said: "Conventional painkillers don't tend to help people with severe chronic neuropathic pain and most available treatments have modest efficacy and/or are limited by side effects. We are therefore keen to find new ways of providing these people with some relief.

"A positive trial like this in such a challenging condition as post-herpetic neuralgia, for a drug that acts in a new way, is unusual and very exciting. We hope that the new drug will ultimately offer hope for patients who aren't helped by current treatments."

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New drug treatment reduces chronic pain following shingles