The N-type calcium channel rises from the ashes.

Chronic pain is a debilitating condition that affects up to 1.5 billion people globally. Advancing pain management depends on a thorough understanding of the types of pain experienced by patients and the underlying mechanisms driving it. N-type calcium channels play a crucial role as therapeutic targets for managing chronic pain. In this issue of the JCI, Tang et al. introduce C2230, an N-type calcium channel blocker that inhibited CaV2.2 channels during high frequency stimulation with little effect on other ion channels in the pain pathway across multiple models. C2230 offers a promising analgesic for use in therapeutic intervention.