Breakthroughs from an all-Italian study: reducing pain without hindering healing. As we all know, inflammation causes pain, but it is also required for our bodies to heal themselves. What if it was possible to heal with less suffering? A dream that may soon become a reality. In collaboration with New York University, the University of California, San Diego, and the Florentine spin-off FloNext Srl, a study was conducted by a team of researchers from the Department of Health Sciences (DSS) at the University of Florence. The study's findings, published in Nature Communications, have the potential to transform how we treat inflammatory pain. The article, titled "Targeting Prostaglandin E2 Receptor 2 in Schwann Cells Inhibits Inflammatory Pain but Not Inflammation," demonstrates that blocking a specific prostaglandin receptor (EP2) in Schwann cells—cells normally responsible for protecting nerve fibers—reduces pain without interfering with the inflammatory process. This information is crucial, as inflammation is beneficial in the body's ability to repair damaged tissue. The difficulty is that it frequently causes chronic pain, such as osteoarthritis or other medical conditions that are becoming more prevalent as the population ages. "Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, specifically common NSAIDs such as aspirin and ibuprofen, are consumed by millions of individuals on a daily basis", explains Pierangelo Geppetti, professor emeritus of Clinical Pharmacology at the DSS and now at the Pain Research Center at New York University. "However, they function by indiscriminately inhibiting prostaglandins, which can have major repercussions for the digestive system, heart, kidneys, and liver, particularly if used long-term. However, targeted blockade of the EP2 receptor may offer comparable alleviation without these adverse effects". "For decades, it was believed that inflammation and pain were inextricably linked", Geppetti continues. “Our study shows that it is possible to relieve pain while allowing inflammation to carry out its beneficial healing function".