Scientists uncover potential treatment for painful side effect of diabetes

Why diabetics suffer from increased pain and temperature sensitivity is a step closer to being understood and effectively treated. The methylglyoxalproduced in diabetes modifies a sodium channel Nav 1.8 (SCN10A)  causing nerves to become super-sensitive to pain and extremes of temperature.

TSRI eNewsletter: Researchers find new target for pain relief

After medical researchers spent three decades hunting for a drug that could effectively treat pain caused by nerve damage, a Scripps Research team decided to try something new.
Gary Siuzdak, professor of chemistry and molecular biology and senior director of mass spectrometry, Gary J. Patti, a research associate at Scripps Research, and their colleagues focused on metabolomics, a field of medicine that's increasingly used to find biochemical markers or signatures of diseases.