A chemical in the body which triggers pain from UNB Irradiation or sunburn has been identified by UK experts. It may help them to develop new drugs to treat pain. The CXCL5 molecule is element of a family of proteins called chemokines which take on inflammatory immune cells to injured tissue, triggering pain and tenderness.
This chemical is generated when skin is burnt by UV rays from the sun. Exposure to ultraviolet light from sunlight can cause premature skin aging, cancer and other skin changes. UVB radiation characteristically affects the outer layer of skin called the epidermis, and is the primary agent accountable for sunburn.
They have identified this CXCL5 molecule as a significant factor that drives some forms of pain and they did that in the context of UVB irradiation or sunburn, explained Stephen McMahon from the Wolfson Center for age-related diseases from King’s College London and head of a research group known as the London Pain Consortium.
But this study is not just about sunburn. More largely they have identified a intermediary that may be important in a variety of different pains conditions , particularly those associated with inflammation and there are lots of those out there, for example in arthritis. The sunburn skin became tender over the following hours and the pain grew to a climax approximately one to two days later.
At this crest the researchers took small biopsies of the affected skin and searched the tissue for hundreds of pain mediators. Their results showed that CXCL5 was present at high levels in the human biopsies. The further study on mice showed that a neutralizing antibody which aimed at CXCL5 was capable to diminish the sensitivity to pain occurred due to the UVB irradiation.
The next step would be to develop a human version of the antibody for testing in clinical trials, said Mcmahon. According to Dr David Bennett, a neurologist at King’s College Hospital, they intend to extend this approach to other types of pain and in particular to study patients suffering from chronic pain hoping to speed up the process of turning science into effective treatments for patients.