Neuropathic Pain

Neuropathic pain is a complex and chronic pain state resulting from nerve damage (neuropathy). The pain may persist for years beyond the apparent healing. In this situation, pain signals no longer represent an alarm about injury.  Instead, the alarm system itself is malfunctioning resulting in chronic and debilitating pain. The most common causes of neuropathy are diabetes, cancer, herpes zoster infection, HIV/AIDS, sciatica, toxins, alcoholism and trauma including surgery.

In the clinic, antiepileptic and antidepressant drugs form the first line of treatment, albeit they have proven to be, at best, symptomatic and only partially effective. As yet, no disease-modifying treatment strategies exist for alleviating neuropathic pain. However, in animal models, treatment with NsGene’s propriatary neurotrophic protein, Neublastin, results in complete reversal of multiple pain phenotypes concomitant with normalization of neurochemical as well as morphological features of the primary sensory neurons (Gardell et al, 2004). Another of NsGene’s propriatary neurotrophic proteins, NsG33 (Meteorin) may have similar disease-modifying properties. Hence, instead of treating pain symptoms, targeting the underlying neuropathy with neurotrophic factors may lead to an effective management of neuropathic pain in the near future.