Selective blockade of nociceptive pathways represents a mechanism-based approach that
has attracted a large variety of pharmacological and molecular investigations. A potential
site for selective intervention is the primary afferent nociceptive nerve terminal. Binding of
resiniferatoxin (RTX) to the vanilloid-1 receptor (VR1) stimulates and then inactivates heat
and vanilloid-responsive nerve endings involved in heat and inflammatory pain signaling
which can progress to localized degeneration of the peripheral ending followed by …