Pain genes

Pain, which afflicts up to 20% of the population at any time, provides both a massive therapeutic challenge and a route to understanding mechanisms in the nervous system. Specialised sensory neurons (nociceptors) signal the existence of tissue damage to the central nervous system (CNS), where pain i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPLoS genetics Vol. 4; no. 7; p. e1000086
Main Authors Foulkes, Tom, Wood, John N
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Public Library of Science 01.07.2008
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects
Afferent Pathways - drug effects
Afferent Pathways - physiology
Analgesics
Animals
Brain research
Consciousness
Forecasting
Gene Deletion
Gene expression
Genes
Genetics and Genomics/Physiogenomics
Humans
Immune system
Metabolites
Mice
Mice, Transgenic
Models, Neurological
Neuroscience
Neuroscience/Sensory Systems
Nociceptors - drug effects
Nociceptors - physiology
Pain - drug therapy
Pain - genetics
Pain - physiopathology
Pain management
Peripheral Nervous System - drug effects
Peripheral Nervous System - physiology
Physical Chromosome Mapping
Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide
Potassium
Review
Spinal cord
Twin Studies as Topic
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Summary:Pain, which afflicts up to 20% of the population at any time, provides both a massive therapeutic challenge and a route to understanding mechanisms in the nervous system. Specialised sensory neurons (nociceptors) signal the existence of tissue damage to the central nervous system (CNS), where pain is represented in a complex matrix involving many CNS structures. Genetic approaches to investigating pain pathways using model organisms have identified the molecular nature of the transducers, regulatory mechanisms involved in changing neuronal activity, as well as the critical role of immune system cells in driving pain pathways. In man, mapping of human pain mutants as well as twin studies and association studies of altered pain behaviour have identified important regulators of the pain system. In turn, new drug targets for chronic pain treatment have been validated in transgenic mouse studies. Thus, genetic studies of pain pathways have complemented the traditional neuroscience approaches of electrophysiology and pharmacology to give us fresh insights into the molecular basis of pain perception.
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ISSN:1553-7404
1553-7390
1553-7404
DOI:10.1371/journal.pgen.1000086