The Nation - News from April 27, 1987

Animal studies suggest a new kind of drug may block pain from cuts and burns without producing numbness, and scientists say it may also provide alternative means of relief for arthritis and backaches. The drug prevents a natural substance called bradykinin from triggering pain-sensing nerves next to the injury, said Dr. Solomon Snyder of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. Snyder reports the studies this week in the European Journal of Pharmacology, along with Larry Steranka and others of Nova Pharmaceutical Corp. in Baltimore and Raymond Vavrek and John Stewart of the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Nova plans to start human tests in a few months, Snyder said in an interview.