Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology - Volume 12, Issue 10, 2011

The development of new therapeutic approaches to the treatment of painful neuropathies requires a better understanding of the mechanisms that underlie chronic pain syndromes. There is increasing evidence that immune competent cells such as microglia contribute to the development of chronic pain states. Chemokines play a pivotal role in mediating neuronal-microglial communication which leads to increased nociceptio Read More

Voltage-gated sodium channels (NaV) are well validated targets for treating pain based both on human genetics and clinical experience. Consequently, there is an extensive literature on sodium channels for the treatment of pain and a number of excellent and thorough reviews have recently appeared; a selection of these is provided. This review does not attempt to evaluate all aspects of the studies in this area, but r Read More

Bv8 is a small protein secreted by frog skin. Mammalian homologues of Bv8, the prokineticins PK1 and PK2, and their G-protein coupled receptors PKR1 and PKR2 have been identified and linked to several biological effects as gut motility, circadian rhythms, neurogenesis, angiogenesis and cancer progression, haematopoiesis and nociception. In rodents, administration of amphibian Bv8 lowers nociceptor thresholds to a bro Read More

Understanding and consequently treating neuropathic pain effectively is a challenge for modern medicine, as unlike inflammation, which can be controlled relatively well, chronic pain due to nerve injury is refractory to most current therapeutics. Here we define a target pathway for a new class of analgesics, tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) synthesis and metabolism. BH4 is an essential co-factor in the synthesis of serotonin, dopa Read More