The neuropathic pain triad: neurons, immune cells and glia
Joachim Scholz and Clifford J Woolf have a nice article in Nature Neuroscience on the biological causes of neuropathic pain. This includes (as the title goes) neurons, as well as immune cells and glia cells. Abstract: Nociceptive pain results from the detection of intense or noxious stimuli by specialized high-threshold sensory neurons (nociceptors), a transfer […]
Joachim Scholz and Clifford J Woolf have a nice article in Nature Neuroscience on the biological causes of neuropathic pain. This includes (as the title goes) neurons, as well as immune cells and glia cells.
Abstract:
Nociceptive pain results from the detection of intense or noxious stimuli by specialized high-threshold sensory neurons (nociceptors), a transfer of action potentials to the spinal cord, and onward transmission of the warning signal to the brain. In contrast, clinical pain such as pain after nerve injury (neuropathic pain) is characterized by pain in the absence of a stimulus and reduced nociceptive thresholds so that normally innocuous stimuli produce pain.
The development of neuropathic pain involves not only neuronal pathways, but also Schwann cells, satellite cells in the dorsal root ganglia, components of the peripheral immune system, spinal microglia and astrocytes.
As we increasingly appreciate that neuropathic pain has many features of a neuroimmune disorder, immunosuppression and blockade of the reciprocal signaling pathways between neuronal and non-neuronal cells offer new opportunities for disease modification and more successful management of pain.
