Grant: Operating Grant

The nerve cells of the sensory portion of the spinal cord in humans and animals are responsible for the relay of pain related information from the body to the brain, leading to a perceived sensation. Injury to the nervous system can induce persistent changes in spinal cord function that cause pain and tenderness to develop and be maintained for very long periods (days to years) after healing. The present project aims at determining how inhibitory control of nerve cell function is regulated and how it is altered in the spinal cord under pathological conditions such as peripheral neuropathy. Understanding the long term alterations which take place in the spinal cord after injury is of critical importance to design treatments for the prevention and alleviation of chronic neuropathic pain syndromes such as postherpetic neuralgia, causalgia following damage to a major nerve, diabetic neuropathy, allodynia, hyperalgesia, and spontaneous or phantom limb pain.