Despite the obvious reasons to the contrary, it is hard to dispute the importance of pain as a mechanism for preserving our health and life. Pain is our body’s response to situations that cause us physical harm or that the body interprets as such, and forces us to generate responses such as reflexes, stress, irritability, etc. that help us stay safe from danger or start endogenous analgesia mechanisms (your own body suppressing pain). If you didn’t feel pain it would be imperceptible to break a bone or make a deep cut and bleed to death. But pain is a very unpleasant thing, at least for the vast majority of humans, which is why since the beginning of history we have created a wide demand for substances that relieve pain.
Already 4,000 years ago the ancient Sumerians consumed willow bark as a method to calm pain and fever, the Egyptians who built the pyramids chewed myrtle leaves for their tired muscles and the Mexica used copal and peyote (among many other substances) as remedies. Today we have many and varied drugs that make the treatment of wounds or diseases or invasive procedures much more bearable; Since we already know the mechanism behind the pain, let’s see how its antagonists, the analgesics, work.
When the nerve endings in your hand detect the heat of a frying pan, for example, they only feel a certain warmth; but soon the temperature rises enough to cross the threshold of the nociceptors, and then Ouch! and see if you remove the finger that you are burning. Now, if you hit your finger with a hammer, your body will start sending certain chemical compounds to your bruised finger, which further lower the area’s nociception threshold, causing a simple brush on your finger to hurt. more than the first blow. These substances are the origin of the pain, and that is where scientists focus to find the cure.
For example, arachidonic acid is one of the main substances that damaged cells release, which in turn causes the synthesis and release of prostaglandins and thromboxanes (causing inflammation, pain, and further lowering your pain threshold). thanks to its interaction with the enzymes COX-1 and COX-2. Thus, if we manage to avoid contact between arachidonic acid and COX, we can avoid the production of substances that cause pain, and this is exactly how two of the main modern analgesics work: aspirin and ibuprofen. Today we will limit ourselves to these two and their relatives, the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and leave the opium derivatives for later, with a quite different mechanism and orders of magnitude greater potency.
NSAIDs block pain by blocking COX1 and COX-2 arachidonic acid receptors, but since they are unable to localize tissue damage, they simply block all those pesky COX enzymes, preventing them from sounding the alarm; that is, they don’t know where the pain is being generated, so they block it everywhere. Aspirin is a compound derived from salicin, the substance found in willow bark that was consumed by the Assyrians thousands of years ago. Salicylic acid, a by-product of salicin digestion, is particularly effective at blocking the enzyme receptors on COX-1 and COX-2, and the main difference from ibuprofen is the way they block the receptors, and therefore how long; the longer they remain blocked, the less arachidonic acid comes into contact with the enzymes, and the less pain you will feel in your finger. Ibuprofen is more easily expelled from the receptors than aspirin, for example, which reduces its analgesic effect.
NSAIDs have been great allies in improving the quality of life of humans around the planet. The ease of going to the corner store and buying two little white pills that will eliminate the headache that prevents us from working gives us peace of mind, but knowing that much more than that there are medications that can alleviate practically any ailment, although with very different, it’s a real relief.
Engineer
a pale blue dot
He is a Computer Systems Engineer. His areas of knowledge are technologies, science and the environment.