Beyond Opioids

Researchers are unlocking the genetic underpinnings of pain to develop innovative treatments.

- Naomi Kresge

The pain in Susan Hahla’s feet started as pins and needles, then progressed to flickering fires. Each month, Hahla found herself in a different doctor’s office, waiting for another disease to be crossed off the list: no restless leg syndrome, no rheumatism, and no, thank goodness, multiple sclerosis.

Finally, doctors at Oslo University Hospital in Norway diagnosed her with small-fiber neuropathy, a disorder caused when nerves misfire. “It gave me a good feeling that I wasn’t dreaming up something,” says Hahla, 71. But finding a treatment proved elusive. Some drugs had no effect on the pain; one, usually prescribed for epilepsy, left her forgetful and unable to walk a straight line.

After suffering for more than a decade, Hahla agreed to become the only subject in an unusual test. A team of German scientists took a sample of cells from her skin, then, in a delicate, monthslong process, reprogrammed them into a type of stem cell, then into nerve cells. Using tiny electrical shocks, they found a drug—normally prescribed for people with seizures—that seemed to block the pain signals at the cellular level. Within five days of using it, she was almost pain-free.