Molecular Mechanisms of Neuropathic Pain

Dear Colleagues,

With the ageing of the global population and the social instability caused by various epidemics, disasters and conflicts, the number of patients with chronic pain continues to increase. According to a recent proposal, nociplastic pain such as fibromyalgia is categorized as both a chronic and neuropathic pain. Some medicines that are able to treat chronic pain are now available, but they often have effects events during long-term treatments. Ideally, we should consider short-term and radical treatments that suppress the pain memory. For this purpose, it is necessary to clarify the mechanisms of prolonged pain and search for new mechanism-based drug targets. Over the past decade, pain research has focused on primary sensory nerves and spinal dorsal horn, and has yielded numerous findings. More recent studies have revealed that repeated pain stimuli also affect various brain regions and that changes in the structure and function of neural networks may contribute to prolonged pain. This Special Issue, therefore, focuses on the latest findings underlying the pain persistence associated with changes in the neural networks mediated by neurons, glial cells and immune cells in various brain regions, and with the brain–immune connection in the development of chronic pain.

Prof. Dr. Hiroshi Ueda
Prof. Dr. Norimitsu Morioka
Guest Editors

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• neuropathic pain
• nociplastic pain
• fibromyalgia
• brain-immune connection
• sexual dimorphism
• glial cells
• lysophosphatidic acid