ERA-NET NEURON: Identification and study of different immune cell populations and their role in chronic pain

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About one in five individuals is likely to suffer from chronic pain in their lifetime. Many diseases andconditions can cause intractable pain, for instance rheumatoid arthritis or nerve damage caused byinjury or virus-infection, and these pains frequently have devastating consequences. While scientistshave yet to identify fool-proof treatment options, they have made some important advances inunderstanding what goes wrong in the body of a chronic pain sufferer. In particular, we now know thatthe way our immune system responds to injury or infection can have an important impact on chronicpain. What is less clear, is which cell types are involved exactly and what it is about their responsesthat is so damaging to the surrounding neurons. Could the nature of this immune response predispose people towards developing chronic pain?In this grant, we would like to investigate these questions further. We will use new experimentalmethods to isolate immune cells and study their molecular responses. We will also study patientssuffering from acute pain to identify whether their immune response makes them more or less likely todevelop persistent pain. Our experiments have the potential to identify risk factors for chronic pain as well as novel avenues for treatment.