'Pain sponge' could soak up pain signals before they reach brain
The hope is that the "pain sponge" could enable patients to stop relying on opioid medications for pain relief, the researchers say.
(Web Desk) - Scientists are developing a "sponge" that can soak up pain signals in the body before they reach the brain, potentially offering an alternative to painkillers.
An experimental treatment uses specialized neurons derived from stem cells to "soak up" triggers of pain and inflammation in the arthritic knees of mice.
This lab-mouse experiment suggests the therapy could potentially help with chronic pain in people, caused by conditions like osteoarthritis, for example.
The hope is that the "pain sponge" could enable patients to stop relying on opioid medications for pain relief, the researchers say.
And as a bonus side effect, the engineered neurons also promoted bone and cartilage repair in the mice they were tested in, the researchers reported in a preprint posted to the server bioRxiv in December 2025.
The work has not yet been peer-reviewed.
"The possibility that the therapy could both relieve pain and slow cartilage degeneration is particularly compelling for osteoarthritis," Chuan-Ju Liu, an orthopedics professor at Yale University who wasn't involved in the study, told Live Science.
