Grant: Project Grant

More than 7 million Canadians (1/5) live with pain that affects their daily activities. Pain is often caused by an injury, an infection or a disease, and can persist long after the initial insult/disease subsides. Maladaptive processes (sensitization) that take place at the periphery and in the brain are responsible for this unresolved form of pain. Clinical pain management relies mainly on aspirin-like drugs and narcotics, but the recent "opioid epidemic" demonstrates the need of safer and better pain treatments. Our project stems from the clinical observation that certain types of bacteria and viruses have evolved to infect the host and remain undetected by the sensory system. One well-known example is the loss of taste or smell with COVID19. Our lab found that such biological response has a major role in regulating pain resolution following tissue inflammation. One key molecule of this biological response is STING (Stimulator of Interferon genes). In mice, we found that STING regulates nerve function and pain sensitivity. We show that activating or removing STING can block or promote pain, respectively. Our project will determine the biological processes by which STING controls chronic pain after inflammation. Finally, as bacteria living in the gut modulate STING, we will use mice with defined bacterial communities to explore the effect of bacterial molecules on pain sensitivity. Our project will thus delineate the biological processes by which STING attenuates pain and exploit our findings to test novel and efficient treatments, including bacterial products that could mitigate pain and thus relieve the suffering of millions of people worldwide.