Pain Protein Identified

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When someone suffers from neuropathic pain, even the slightest touch on the skin can be excruciating.
Luckily, researchers from Laval University (Laval, QC) and the Hospital for Sick Children (Toronto, ON) recently discovered a protein that is key to neuropathic pain, and may lead to the development of new diagnostics and treatments.
Neuropathic pain is a condition in which a person’s touch perception is altered. The condition is often experienced after nerve injury or from diseases that affect peripheral nerve function, such as diabetes, shingles or cancer. Following this nerve damage, a biophysical change in the spinal cord, called microglia, takes place.
Researchers were already aware that microglia involved communication with nerve cells in the pain-processing network, but were unclear as to how the communication occurred. The research team has discovered that Brain-derived Neurotropic Factor (BDNF) is released during this process.
By injecting BDNF into the spinal cords of mice, researchers were able to induce allodynia — a pain reaction to something that is not normally considered painful. Additionally, by blocking or intercepting BDNF signaling from the microglia, the allodynia was reversed.
The findings were published in the December 16 issue of Nature.