Highlights
- PainCart profiling provides one of the most robust measures of analgesic efficacy.
- PainCart offers high inter-subject and intra-subject consistency and repeatability.
- The test battery can mimic a wide variety of pain mechanisms.
- The tests can be repeated many times, providing extensive pharmacokinetic information.
- PainCart can be implemented in both single and multiple ascending dose studies.
Summary
Human pain models are an important tool for assessing the analgesic effect of
drugs and providing information about a drug's pharmacology. However, no single experimental model can replicate the complex nature of clinical pain.
CHDR's PainCart® provides the solution: a multi-modal, standardised, comprehensive battery of tests for studying the efficacy of analgesic compounds for several types of pain, including thermal, electrical, chemical, and mechanical pain.
A key advantage of PainCart over other pain batteries is that it is fully mobile, allowing researchers to perform the complete test battery on the go. Meanwhile, the integrated software ensures testing consistency, as well as the reliable capture, handling, and storage of data.
Practical answers to important research questions
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Does our compound have the desired analgesic effect?
We maintain a database of PainCart profiles for a wide range of analgesics, including ketamine, fentanyl, ibuprofen, paracetamol, buprenorphine, paracetamol, and several experimental compounds. Thanks to this database, we can compare the effects of a new substance with profiles of these compounds. Studies performed at CHDR have demonstrated the success of this approach. In one such study, the PainCart was used to show that a compound targeting the nerve growth factor (NGF) pathway – a new class of potential analgesics – has a clear therapeutic effect and a profile similar to ibuprofen, revealing anti-inflammatory properties. This approach can also help with the selection of patients for follow-up studies. Importantly, PainCart can also be used to predict whether a putative analgesic compound will work in clinical studies.
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What is the optimal dose?
PainCart also excels at providing important information regarding dosage, particularly when paired with other test batteries such as the NeuroCart®. This was demonstrated in a previous study where, although NeuroCart showed that a given dose of a GABA-A receptor agonist had a pharmacological effect, PainCart revealed that this dose did not provide sufficient analgesia; however, at higher doses, the expected analgesic effect was observed.
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Does our analgesic compound interact with other CNS drugs?
PainCart can also be used to study synergistic and/or other interactions between two analgesic compounds, or between an analgesic and another CNS drug (such as an antidepressant). This provides researchers with a powerful strategy for reducing the analgesic dose and/or uncovering harmful drug-drug interactions. An example of such a study carried out at CHDR involved using PainCart to measure synergy between a selective noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor and an opioid analgesic in the treatment of neuropathic pain.
