Crow Megan, Denk Franziska, McMahon Stephen B
Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases, King's College London, London SE1 1UL, UK.
Genome Med. 2013 Feb 15;5(2):12. doi: 10.1186/gm416. eCollection 2013.
Chronic pain affects approximately one in five adults, resulting in a greatly reduced quality of life and a higher risk of developing co-morbidities such as depression. Available treatments often provide inadequate pain relief, but it is hoped that through deeper understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying chronic pain states we can discover new and improved therapies. Although genetic research has flourished over the past decade and has identified many key genes in pain processing, the budding field of epigenetics promises to provide new insights and a more dynamic view of pain regulation. This review gives an overview of basic mechanisms and current therapies to treat pain, and discusses the clinical and preclinical evidence for the contribution of genetic and epigenetic factors, with a focus on how this knowledge can affect drug development.
慢性疼痛影响着约五分之一的成年人，导致生活质量大幅下降，并增加了患抑郁症等共病的风险。现有的治疗方法往往无法充分缓解疼痛，但人们希望通过更深入地了解慢性疼痛状态背后的分子机制，能够发现新的、更有效的治疗方法。尽管基因研究在过去十年中蓬勃发展，已经确定了许多疼痛处理中的关键基因，但新兴的表观遗传学领域有望提供新的见解和更动态的疼痛调节观点。本文综述了疼痛治疗的基本机制和当前疗法，并讨论了基因和表观遗传因素作用的临床和临床前证据，重点关注这些知识如何影响药物开发。
