A new study from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators has found, for the first time, evidence of neuroinflammation in key regions of the brains of patients with chronic pain. By showing that levels of an inflammation-linked protein are elevated in regions known to be involved in the transmission of pain, the study published online in the journal Brain paves the way for the exploration of potential new treatment strategies and identifies a possible way around one of the most frustrating limitations in the study and treatment of chronic pain - the lack of an objective way to measure the presence or intensity of pain. Finding increased levels of the translocator protein in regions like the thalamus - the brains sensory gateway for pain and other stimuli - is important, since we know that this protein is highly expressed in microglia and astrocytes, the immune cells of the central nervous system, when they are activated in response to some pathologic event, says Marco Loggia, PhD, of the MGH-based Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, lead author of the report. Demonstrating glial activation in chronic pain suggests that these cells may be a therapeutic target, and the consistency with which we found glial activation in chronic pain patients suggests that our results may be an important step towards developing biomarkers for pain conditions. medicalxpress/news/2015-01-imaging-evidence-neuroinflammation-brains-chronic.html
Posted on: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 23:17:26 +0000
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