Spicy Chili Pepper May Help Scientists Create New Drugs to Halt Pain

When you bite into a spicy chili pepper, you immediately feel a burning sensation on your tongue and mouth. Now, scientists have taken a closer look at the chili pepper's effect in order to create a new drug candidate that helps stop pain. The findings could mean a new way to treat inflammation and other problems.

In a chili pepper, the compound capsaicin is the active ingredient that causes your tongue to feel like it's on fire. In fact, there's a protein "receptor" that capsaicin attaches to in the body; researchers were actually able to sequence the genetic sequence for this receptor in the 1990s.

The receptor itself is a protein on cells that acts as a gate, only allowing certain substances into a cell. If researchers could potentially block this gate, they could cut off the pain signal and potentially treat the pain felt. So far, researchers have found a few molecules that can block this gate; however, these molecules have either caused unwanted side effects, or wouldn't work well as an oral medication.

That's why the researchers decided to look a bit more closely at potential compounds. They produced more than two dozen similar compounds in all, each with its own unique molecular tweak. Then, they tested these compounds in the lab and in animals for the traits they were looking for: potency, safety, the ability to dissolve in water, and whether they could be taken orally.

So what did they find? The researchers have now found one compound that shows promise. Currently, it's being tested in clinical trials.

The findings are published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.