http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=cool-aid-drug-that-causes&WT.mc_id=SA_syn_HuffPo
During the last decade, a series of studies in The New England Journal of Medicine chronicled the potential benefits of rescuing patients from stroke, heart attack and other conditions by lowering body temperature to reduce demand for oxygen. Depressed body temperature may also have manifold effects beyond the ones described—anything from prolonging life span to inducing a lower metabolic state suitable for long-distance spaceflight.
A hurdle to lowering body temperature to protect brain cells after stroke is the body's own cold-defense mechanisms. Unless a patient is anesthetized, blood vessels in the skin constrict, shivering begins, brown fat generates heat and a patient experiences the natural urge to seek a warmer environment. All of these "thermo-effector responses" are there to keep things steady at 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
An experimental drug demonstrated by researchers at the Fever Lab in Saint Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix and their collaborators points to a way around the thermo-effector blockade. The agent blocked a receptor on nerve cells in mice and rats called TRPM8 that is normally activated by skin cooling to set in motion the body’s cold-defense armamentarium. The drug, a compound called M8-B, stopped even moderately chilled animals from mounting a cold response, thereby lowering core body temperature. "The body stops defending its temperature," says Andrej Romanovsky, who heads the Fever Lab.
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