Grant: Project Grant

Chronic pain affects nearly 8 million Canadians, and economic costs are expected to rise to $50B annually in less than ten years. There are few treatment options for chronic neuropathic pain, which is described as "the worst pain imaginable" on patient rating scales. Opioids are commonly used to manage pain but carry severe risks, and their inappropriate prescription has led to the current opioid epidemic. Most importantly, more than half of patients report inadequate pain relief with current medications, resulting in increased hospital stays and patient costs, along with reduced productivity and quality of life. There is therefore a crucial need for the development of new treatment options for chronic neuropathic pain. Work from our group show that activation profiles of immune cells in the spinal cord (specifically microglia) are central to the circadian rhythms driving chronic neuropathic pain. Through our systematic approach, we will investigate how the genetic control of these rhythms in microglia drive their activation and contribute to the development and maintenance of chronic neuropathic pain. We will work to 1) determine how microglial circadian rhythms regulate neuroinflammation and pain; 2) identify genes/networks expressed in microglia to identify new therapeutic targets ; and 3) investigate the contribution of a transcription factor (gene) we have recently identified as expressed in microglia after injury to rhythmic microglial activation and chronic pain. This will shed new light to our understanding of microglial function and activity, which is crucial to many other neuroinflammatory diseases, including Alzheimer's Disease and multiple sclerosis.