SMART NANOTECH SET TO DISRUPT $80B's PAINKILLER INDUSTRY

The global pain direct cost: over $80 billion a year
Chronic pain costs the world more than $80 billion annually in treatments, medications, and interventions for pain relief. Beyond the financial toll, many patients develop a dependency for addictive painkillers — among them, opioids, a crisis which, in the US alone, claims some 50,000 lives each year.

Focused and lasting pain relief
Chronic pain — whether knee pain, back pain or severe nerve pain from conditions like shingles or trigeminal neuralgia (the 'suicide disease') — has no consistently effective solution.

Now, however, a groundbreaking innovation from the Israeli company Nano-Painkiller (Nano-PK) offers real hope to millions worldwide. "It began with neuroscientist, Dr. Shlomo Tsuriel, who was doing postdoctoral research in retrograde tracing at Harvard," explains Michael Zilbershlag. "He developed a method for delivering fluorescent materials along nerves, which enabled him to map target body regions reached by axons — the long nerve fibers that transmit electrical signals between neurons. His method was internationally recognized and published in Nature Methods."

At this point, Tsuriel had his breakthrough idea: if fluorescent molecules can travel along nerves, perhaps nanoparticles can do so, as well — carrying agents designed to selectively destroy pain-causing nerves. He partnered with Zilbershlag, a veteran medical device entrepreneur who had developed the first wireless artificial heart, to co-found Nano-Painkiller. Yanir Eldovy, a biotech and nanotechnology expert with extensive experience in developing and commercializing pharma innovations across the US and Europe, joined the leadership team shortly afterward.

The three-stage FPA process
Nano-PK's treatment is known as Focus Pain Ablation (FPA). It combines precise nanoparticle injection, retrograde neural tracing and ultrasound activation to deliver targeted, long-term pain relief through selectively ablating (burning) the damaged sensory nerve cells that cause pain.

It comprises three distinct phases. First is the injection phase: nanoparticles are injected into the area containing the damaged nerve fibers — for example, the genicular nerve in the knee joint. Next comes the retrograde transport phase: over the next 14 days, the injected nanoparticles travel backward (hence, 'retrograde') along the axon to the nerve cell body in the dorsal root ganglion (DRG), carried within lysosomes along microtubules by motor proteins. The third and final phase is that of focused ablation: after the 14 days, ultrasound energy is applied to the targeted DRG. The ultrasonic waves activate the nanoparticles, generating localized heat that destroys the nerve cell body, permanently silencing the pain signal.

"Because the nerve cells are destroyed, there's no regrowth, which ensures long-lasting, pain relief," says Zilbershlag. "And because the approach is extremely focused, it ablates only the damaged sensory nerves, leaving motor neurons untouched, so there's no collateral damage or loss of movement."

The method has proven results. In controlled and replicable preclinical studies, there was dramatic reduction in pain levels.

What types of pain can this method treat?
The treatment targets pain localized to specific areas mapped to corresponding DRGs. "Our initial focus is knee pain," says Zilbershlag. "This affects over 300 million people worldwide and costs over $7 billion annually in drugs, surgeries and injections."

Among future applications are phantom limb pain in amputees (a significant issue in Israel with the country's many war and terror survivors), back pain, shingles-related nerve pain and the extreme facial pain of trigeminal neuralgia.

Safer, effective alternatives to addictive painkillers are urgently needed," says Zilbershlag. "Our technology addresses this global problem with a clearly understood scientific mechanism and proven effectiveness in preclinical studies.

Managing pain rather than masking it
Using the knee as an example, Zilbershlag explains: "This joint has a dense network of motor nerves (movement) and sensory nerves (pain). Nano-PK's method selectively reduces the number of sensory nerves, effectively normalizing the pain signal without entirely eliminating it. Pain remains important as the body's warning system — but with our technology, patients can now manage it safely and effectively."

Development status and next steps
"The company has been active for three years," says Zilbershlag. "To date, we've received two grants from the Israel Innovation Authority's Tnufa incentive program, which supports early-stage tech entrepreneurs, and recently secured a NIS 1.5 million grant from the Chief Scientist, demonstrating strong confidence in our business plan and technology. We're currently raising matching funds from private investors to begin human clinical trials."

Further information:

In collaboration with Nano Painkiller

An Israeli nanotechnology innovation could revolutionize chronic pain treatment — delivering focused, lasting relief while saving billions in global healthcare costs.