An integrated approach to monitor the development and treatment of chronic pain.

One in five European adults suffers from moderate-to-severe chronic pain, and about half of them report inadequate pain control. Over-prescription of opioid-based analgesics and their associated risk of addiction and tolerance has contributed to the “opioid crisis”. The development of new analgesic drugs is considered essential but hampered by the incomplete knowledge of the mechanisms that underly chronic pain and by the poor translation between preclinical and clinical tests. The aim of this project is to develop an innovative approach to study pain development in mice during its onset and treatment. We will use a chronic inflammatory pain model and a combination of three long-term, in vivo imaging techniques to measure (1) sensory nerve endings, (2) second order sensory neurons, and (3) the entire brain. We will use this approach to test the efficacy of a promising novel analgesic drug target, known as TRPM3. We hypothesize that repeated antagonism of TRPM3 during tissue inflammation will not only reduce the hyperexcitability of nociceptor neurons, but also restore normal activity at higher levels of the pain pathway. Taken together, this project will provide more objective insights into the mechanisms underlying chronic pain and the working mechanisms of investigational pain treatments, resulting in a better clinical translation of preclinical pain research.