Heinle J Westley, Dalessio Shannon, Janicki Piotr, Ouyang Ann, Vrana Kent E, Ruiz-Velasco Victor, Coates Matthew D
Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, United States.
Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, United States.
Front Pharmacol. 2024 May 23;15:1398409. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2024.1398409. eCollection 2024.
Pain is a major issue in healthcare throughout the world. It remains one of the major clinical issues of our time because it is a common sequela of numerous conditions, has a tremendous impact on individual quality of life, and is one of the top drivers of cost in medicine, due to its influence on healthcare expenditures and lost productivity in those affected by it. Patients and healthcare providers remain desperate to find new, safer and more effective analgesics. Growing evidence indicates that the voltage-gated sodium channel Na1.8 plays a critical role in transmission of pain-related signals throughout the body. For that reason, this channel appears to have strong potential to help develop novel, more selective, safer, and efficacious analgesics. However, many questions related to the physiology, function, and clinical utility of Na1.8 remain to be answered. In this article, we discuss the latest studies evaluating the role of Na1.8 in pain, with a particular focus on visceral pain, as well as the steps taken thus far to evaluate its potential as an analgesic target. We also review the limitations of currently available studies related to this topic, and describe the next scientific steps that have already been undertaken, or that will need to be pursued, to fully unlock the capabilities of this potential therapeutic target.
疼痛是全球医疗保健领域的一个主要问题。它仍然是我们这个时代的主要临床问题之一，因为它是众多病症的常见后遗症，对个人生活质量有巨大影响，并且由于其对医疗保健支出以及受其影响者的生产力损失的影响，是医疗费用的主要驱动因素之一。患者和医疗保健提供者仍迫切希望找到新的、更安全且更有效的镇痛药。越来越多的证据表明，电压门控钠通道Na1.8在全身疼痛相关信号的传递中起关键作用。因此，该通道似乎具有很大潜力，有助于开发新型、更具选择性、更安全且更有效的镇痛药。然而，许多与Na1.8的生理学、功能和临床效用相关的问题仍有待解答。在本文中，我们讨论了评估Na1.8在疼痛中作用的最新研究，特别关注内脏痛，以及迄今为止为评估其作为镇痛靶点的潜力所采取的步骤。我们还回顾了当前关于该主题的现有研究的局限性，并描述了已经采取或需要采取的进一步科学步骤，以充分发挥这个潜在治疗靶点的能力。
