Title:Targeting Pain-evoking Transient Receptor Potential Channels for the Treatment of Pain
Volume: 11
Issue: 6
Author(s): Jialie Luo, Edgar T Walters, Susan M Carlton and Hongzhen Hu
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Transient receptor potential channels, pain, inflammation, neuropathy, pain management, drug target.
Abstract: Chronic pain affects billions of lives globally and is a major public health problem in the United States.
However, pain management is still a challenging task due to a lack of understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of
pain. In the past decades transient receptor potential (TRP) channels have been identified as molecular sensors of tissue
damage and inflammation. Activation/sensitization of TRP channels in peripheral nociceptors produces neurogenic
inflammation and contributes to both somatic and visceral pain. Pharmacological and genetic studies have affirmed the
role of TRP channels in multiple forms of inflammatory and neuropathic pain. Thus pain-evoking TRP channels emerge
as promising therapeutic targets for a wide variety of pain and inflammatory conditions.
