Grant: Project Grant

About 70% of people living with chronic pain are women. Despite the higher prevalence among women, most pain studies have focused on male subjects. This has biased drug development and treatment strategies, contributing to poor pain management for women. For example, neuropathic pain, a type of chronic pain condition caused by nervous system injury or disease, affects women more frequently than men. It often presents with abnormal sensitivity to light touch, causing pain. The underlying causes of this debilitating symptom, termed allodynia, may vary between men and women, with notable differences observed in immune responses involved in neuropathic pain. This study will unravel the crucial role of T-cells, a specific type of immune cell, in the development of neuropathic pain in female but not male rodents. Our team uncovered that these immune cells initiate neuropathic pain by releasing leptin, a hormone that contributes to inflammation. Proposed experiments explore how T-cells release leptin to communicate and drive pain activity in the spinal cord, a central hub for pain signaling. To dissect how this new mechanism is unique to neuropathic pain in female rodents, we will also undertake a detailed comparison in male rodents. These insights are vital for the development of innovative and effective strategies to prevent or improve the treatment of neuropathic pain in an understudied population: women suffering from chronic neuropathic pain.