Sensory transduction mechanisms in chronic pain

慢性疼痛的感觉转导机制

• 批准号: G0500847/1
• 负责人: Stuart Bevan
• 金额: $ 67.76万
• 依托单位: King's College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2006 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=G0500847%2F1
• 关键词: Sensory; transduction; mechanisms; chronic; pain

Pain normally protects us from damaging ourselves or warns us of an injury so that we protect the injured part of the body. In these cases, the pain ceases when the harmful stimulus has gone or the injury has healed. However, in some people the pain is persistent, is no longer associated with injury and has no beneficial protective effect. This chronic pain is associated with some cancers and inflammatory diseases such as arthritis, and can occur after viral infection of the nerves that normally sense pain or after nerve damage associated with diabetes. It is estimated that 300 million people in the world suffer from chronic pain. The current pain killing drugs are mostly based on aspirin or are opiates. The aspirin-like drugs have the drawbacks that they can cause stomach bleeding and are ineffective against nerve injury pain. Apart from concerns about addiction, the opiate like drugs cause sedation, severe constipation and may even stop the patient breathing. The only other types of drugs used to treat nerve injury pain ? anticonvulsant drugs ? also have pronounced undesirable side effects, such as severe dizziness. So there is a large need for new pain killing drugs.

疼痛通常保护我们免受伤害，或者警告我们受伤，以便我们保护身体受伤的部位。在这些情况下，当有害刺激消失或损伤愈合时，疼痛就会停止。然而，在一些人中，疼痛是持续的，不再与伤害有关，也没有有益的保护作用。这种慢性疼痛与某些癌症和炎性疾病（如关节炎）有关，并且可能发生在通常感觉疼痛的神经病毒感染后或与糖尿病相关的神经损伤后。据估计，世界上有3亿人患有慢性疼痛。目前的止痛药大多是基于阿司匹林或阿片类药物。阿司匹林类药物的缺点是，它们会导致胃出血，对神经损伤疼痛无效。除了对成瘾的担忧，阿片类药物会导致镇静，严重便秘，甚至可能停止患者的呼吸。唯一的其他类型的药物用于治疗神经损伤疼痛？抗惊厥药吗还具有明显的不良副作用，例如严重的头晕。因此，对新的止痛药有很大的需求。