Richard Ambron from Columbia University in New York City and colleagues tracked down the enzyme within our brain that gives birth to pain within our bodies when activated. The good news is that it can also be turned off and, therefore, the pain sensation produced by various inflammations or diseases can be stopped.

"Means should be developed to minimize pain, both to affect the quality of life for people who have chronic pain and also to alleviate pain for people who are dying", says Professor Richard Ambron.

The enzyme is called protein kinase G (PKG) and is activated as a response to inflammations or injury. This is how we feel pain. The protein is found in nerve cells and, when activated, it transmits pain signals to the Central Nervous System, which further disperses them within our body. At the same time, the specific protein retains pain and causes nerve cells to remain hyper-excited. If it is not turned off by various drugs or therapies, it continues to give off pain and acts like a chronic pain gatekeeper.

"What happens in a chronic pain state is that the neurons become hyper-excitable. That is, rather than remaining rather dormant and unresponsive, they begin to fire in response to very, very mild stimuli. So we were interested in what is it that causes this hyper-excitability," professor Ambron explained.

This is how the experts' team found that pain sensation can be stopped by turning off the troubling protein. Developing a drug that can switch off the protein is all that is left to be done: "Since we now know one of the key molecules that create this hyper-excited state, if we can target that molecule with a drug to shut it off, then we will shut down the pain," the researcher stated.