New development in the understanding of pain.
University of Cambridge researchers involved in the study, which was reported in the journal Science, found that the removal of the HCN2 gene stopped chronic pain, but not acute pain. Acute pain is short-term pain lasting less than 12 weeks, while chronic pain is long-term pain lasting more than 12 weeks. The researchers say their findings could lead to new drugs being developed which block the protein produced by the HCN2 gene thus, hopefully, regulating neuropathic (nerve related) chronic pain.