Jagiellonian University, Faculty of Pharmacy , Medyczna 9 St., 30-688 Kraków , Poland.
Expert Opin Investig Drugs. 2014 Aug;23(8):1093-104. doi: 10.1517/13543784.2014.916688. Epub 2014 Jun 4.
Neuropathic pain (NP) is a chronic condition that arises from a lesion or dysfunction of the somatosensory nervous system. However, there are several new targets and novel technologies in the pipeline to address this unmet medical need.
In this review, the authors briefly discuss a direction of the development of agents that could be potentially used in NP treatment. Special attention is paid to 1.7-selective voltage-gated sodium channels, N-type voltage-gated calcium channels, angiotensin II (Ang II) AT₂ receptors and nerve growth factor (NGF) as promising targets for new drugs. Furthermore, the article also presents and discusses, in detail, the results of Phase II clinical studies with the AT₂ receptor antagonist - EMA401 in NP (the results of Phase II clinical trials of other described compounds are not available, yet).
There is a real hope that new drugs for NP may be available soon. This hope is based on advancing methods of genomics, developing new targets and more efficient drug screening. Some forms of direct influence on voltage-gated ion channels have a place in the treatment of NP, while the development of entirely novel Ang II AT₂ receptor antagonists or NGF inhibitors may be available for many chronic pain sufferers in the foreseeable future.
神经病理性疼痛（NP）是一种由躯体感觉神经系统的损伤或功能障碍引起的慢性疾病。然而，目前有几个新的靶点和新技术正在研发中，以满足这一未满足的医疗需求。
在这篇综述中，作者简要讨论了一种可能用于 NP 治疗的药物开发方向。特别关注 1.7 型电压门控钠离子通道、N 型电压门控钙通道、血管紧张素 II（Ang II）AT₂受体和神经生长因子（NGF）作为有前途的新药靶点。此外，本文还详细介绍和讨论了 AT₂受体拮抗剂 EMA401 在 NP 中的 II 期临床研究结果（其他描述化合物的 II 期临床试验结果尚未公布）。
很快可能会有治疗 NP 的新药问世，这是有希望的。这种希望基于基因组学的进步、新靶点的开发和更有效的药物筛选。对电压门控离子通道的直接影响的某些形式在 NP 的治疗中有一定的作用，而新型 Ang II AT₂受体拮抗剂或 NGF 抑制剂的开发可能在可预见的未来为许多慢性疼痛患者提供帮助。
