Department of Pain, Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital, People's Hospital of Hangzhou Medical College, Hangzhou, China.
Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Preventive and Translational Medicine for Geriatric Diseases, Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, School of Public Health, Suzhou, China.
Br J Anaesth. 2019 Nov;123(5):637-654. doi: 10.1016/j.bja.2019.07.026. Epub 2019 Sep 21.
The relationship between gut microbiota and neurological diseases, including chronic pain, has received increasing attention. The gut microbiome is a crucial modulator of visceral pain, whereas recent evidence suggests that gut microbiota may also play a critical role in many other types of chronic pain, including inflammatory pain, headache, neuropathic pain, and opioid tolerance. We present a narrative review of the current understanding on the role of gut microbiota in pain regulation and discuss the possibility of targeting gut microbiota for the management of chronic pain. Numerous signalling molecules derived from gut microbiota, such as by-products of microbiota, metabolites, neurotransmitters, and neuromodulators, act on their receptors and remarkably regulate the peripheral and central sensitisation, which in turn mediate the development of chronic pain. Gut microbiota-derived mediators serve as critical modulators for the induction of peripheral sensitisation, directly or indirectly regulating the excitability of primary nociceptive neurones. In the central nervous system, gut microbiota-derived mediators may regulate neuroinflammation, which involves the activation of cells in the blood-brain barrier, microglia, and infiltrating immune cells, to modulate induction and maintenance of central sensitisation. Thus, we propose that gut microbiota regulates pain in the peripheral and central nervous system, and targeting gut microbiota by diet and pharmabiotic intervention may represent a new therapeutic strategy for the management of chronic pain.
肠道微生物群与包括慢性疼痛在内的神经疾病之间的关系已引起越来越多的关注。肠道微生物组是内脏疼痛的重要调节剂,而最近的证据表明,肠道微生物群在许多其他类型的慢性疼痛中也可能发挥关键作用,包括炎症性疼痛、头痛、神经性疼痛和阿片类药物耐受。我们对目前关于肠道微生物群在疼痛调节中的作用的理解进行了叙述性综述,并讨论了针对肠道微生物群来管理慢性疼痛的可能性。大量源自肠道微生物群的信号分子,如微生物群的副产物、代谢物、神经递质和神经调质,作用于其受体,并显著调节外周和中枢敏化,从而介导慢性疼痛的发展。肠道微生物群衍生的介质作为外周敏化诱导的关键调节剂,直接或间接地调节初级伤害感受神经元的兴奋性。在中枢神经系统中,肠道微生物群衍生的介质可能调节神经炎症,其中涉及血脑屏障、小胶质细胞和浸润免疫细胞的激活,以调节中枢敏化的诱导和维持。因此,我们提出肠道微生物群调节外周和中枢神经系统的疼痛,通过饮食和药物干预靶向肠道微生物群可能代表管理慢性疼痛的一种新的治疗策略。
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