Grant: Project Grant

Chronic pain can develop in patients with the disease Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Because the central nervous system (spinal cord and brain) is affected in disease like MS-this type of chronic pain is referred to as 'central neuropathic pain' (CNP). CNP affects nearly half of the people with MS and is incredibly distressing. Currently there is no effective treatment for CNP. Finding a treatment that can target the spinal cord or brain directly can be very challenging and comes with the risk of unwanted side effects. On the other hand, the 'peripheral nervous system' (the nerves and cells that reside outside of the spinal cord and brain but communicate with them) is much easier to target, is often more amenable to treatment and is the focus of our proposed research. Our research to date has revealed that sensory neurons which reside in a structure of the peripheral nervous system known as the 'dorsal root ganglion' become stressed when disease affects the spinal cord and brain. Stressed sensory neurons can begin to send inappropriate signals into the central nervous system and we hypothesize that this is a major factor that establishes CNP in diseases like MS. Our studies will examine this at a variety of levels. First, we aim to understand the specific changes that arise in a stressed sensory neuron that can cause it to function inappropriately. We will then examine several novel therapeutic strategies aimed at relieving the stress on the neurons and determine if this will restore normal function and relieve CNP.