Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Medicine and the University of Helsinki report identifying the role of a particular protein that acts in pain-sensing neurons, or nerve cells, to convert the chemical messengers that cause pain into ones that suppress it.

"This protein has the potential to be a groundbreaking treatment for pain and has previously not been studied in pain-sensing neurons," said Mark Zylka, an assistant professor at the North Carolina school who was the lead author for the study.

Zylka, Professor Pirkko Vihko of the University of Helsinki, and researchers Nathaniel Sowa, Bonnie Taylor-Blake and Margaret Twomey, all from UNC, along with Annakaisa Herrala and Vootele Voikar from the University of Helskinki, report the study in the journal Neuron.