Future Pharmacologic Management of Neuropathic Pain

Neuropathic pain therapy remains enormously challenging despite the increases in knowledge of pain etiology and mechanisms drawn from animal studies. Mechanism-based discovery underlies key approaches toward reduction of peripheral and central hyper-excitability. These include a number of poorly validated molecular targets, such as ion channels, G-protein coupled receptors, purinergic receptors, and chemokine receptors, as well as down-stream regulators of protein phosphorylation. Improvement in translating these approaches into the development of drugs for use in the pain clinic remains a significant but surmountable challenge.

adenosine triphosphate; fructalkine; G-protein coupled receptors; ion channels; kinase

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