Neuropathic pain is a special type of pain caused by damage to the nerves that transmit information to the brain from the skin, muscles, and other body parts. This debilitating chronic pain condition is often described as a burning or shooting type of pain, and the affected areas of the body are often extremely sensitive to light touch. Diabetic peripheral neuropathy, sciatica, and trigeminal neuralgia are just some of the many common neuropathic pain conditions that afflict millions of patients worldwide. Unfortunately, neuropathic pain is poorly responsive to currently available analgesic drugs, particularly opioids, and there is a widespread clinical need for novel, safe, and efficacious non-opioid therapeutics.
Excitingly, a research team in the laboratory of Bradley K. Taylor, PhD, in our department and the Pittsburgh Center for Pain Research uncovered a promising future therapeutic strategy to treat neuropathic pain. Their recent study published in the prestigious Proceedings for the National Academy of Sciences (impact factor: 12.78), spearheaded by lead author Tyler S. Nelson, PhD, used a multidisciplinary approach to demonstrate that a specific population of neurons in the spinal cord drives neuropathic pain. The team revealed that artificial genetic activation of these neurons in un-injured mice could produce behavioral correlates of neuropathic pain. Further, in the setting of nerve injury, the authors found that inhibiting just these spinal cord neurons was sufficient to completely abolish neuropathic pain. Amazingly, these neurons could be inhibited repeatedly and for long periods of time using a neuropeptide, neuropeptide Y, that is naturally and widely produced in all mammals. These exciting preclinical findings promote spinally-directed, neuropeptide Y-based therapeutics as a promising strategy to treat neuropathic pain.