Department of Pharmacology, University of Cambridge, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge, CB2 1PD, UK.
J Neurol. 2018 Feb;265(2):231-238. doi: 10.1007/s00415-017-8641-6. Epub 2017 Oct 14.
Pain results from the activation of a subset of sensory neurones termed nociceptors and has evolved as a "detect and protect" mechanism. However, lesion or disease in the sensory system can result in neuropathic pain, which serves no protective function. Understanding how the sensory nervous system works and what changes occur in neuropathic pain are vital in identifying new therapeutic targets and developing novel analgesics. In recent years, technologies such as optogenetics and RNA-sequencing have been developed, which alongside the more traditional use of animal neuropathic pain models and insights from genetic variations in humans have enabled significant advances to be made in the mechanistic understanding of neuropathic pain.
疼痛是由被称为伤害感受器的感觉神经元亚群的激活引起的，它是一种“检测和保护”机制。然而，感觉系统的损伤或疾病会导致没有保护功能的神经性疼痛。了解感觉神经系统的工作方式以及神经性疼痛中发生的变化对于确定新的治疗靶点和开发新的镇痛剂至关重要。近年来，已经开发出了光遗传学和 RNA 测序等技术，再加上对动物神经性疼痛模型的更传统的使用以及对人类遗传变异的深入了解，使得对神经性疼痛的机制理解取得了重大进展。
