NEW research by Oxford scientists could spell relief for those suffering from chronic back pain.

A study using mice found that the body's own immune system can be used to remove the damage nerve endings that cause pain following injury such as a slipped disc, allowing new healthy nerve endings to grow.

A team from Oxford University found that a process used in cancer treatment to make certain immune cells, called Natural Killer Cells, more active could be used to also increase the removal of damaged nerve fibres.

Alexander Davies of Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences said: "Long-term pain from nerve injury remains a challenge for modern medicine because we have no way of removing damaged nerve fibres without causing more injury.

"Our research shows that the immune system is actually capable of removing these damaged axons to allow for the re-growth of healthy ones.

"If we can tailor current treatments to help the Natural Killer cells remove damaged nerves we may have a way to speed the recovery from a painful nerve injury without the narcotic side-effects of other pain killers."

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The team of scientists are now keen to see if the same naturally occurring mechanism that they have discovered in mice is also at play in the damaged nerves of humans.

This new approach could be of much more long-term benefit for patients with chronic pain compared to the use of strong painkillers, which temporarily silence the nerves, but do not fix the underlying damage causing the pain.