Cooling the pain

 SHAN JIANG AND GUOSONG HONG



DOI: 10.1126/science.abm8159

PDF: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abm8159#

Abstract

As one of the most critical health problems, pain afflicts one in five adults in the world (1). Despite the efficacy of opioids in treating pain, opioid use disorder and overdose have motivated the development of nonopioid alternatives, such as other analgesics (2), electrical stimulation (3), and acupuncture (4) for pain management. Among these alternatives, analgesic nerve cooling offers an effective and reversible strategy to alleviate pain (5). On page 109 of this issue, Reeder et al. (6) report a miniaturized and implantable cooling system that integrates state-of-the-art microfluidic and flexible electronic technologies in a biodegradable platform for localized temperature control and precise pain relief.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abm8159