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Updated: Apr 27, 2026

Intracranial Pharmacotherapy and Pain Assays in Rodents
Published on: April 9, 2019
Emerging targets in neuroinflammation-driven chronic pain
Ru-Rong Ji1, Zhen-Zhong Xu1, Yong-Jing Gao2
1Departments of Anesthesiology and Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center, 595 LaSalle Street, Durham, North Carolina 27710, USA.
Abstract:
Current analgesics predominately modulate pain transduction and transmission in neurons and have limited success in controlling disease progression. Accumulating evidence suggests that neuroinflammation, which is characterized by infiltration of immune cells, activation of glial cells and production of inflammatory mediators in the peripheral and central nervous system, has an important role in the induction and maintenance of chronic pain. This Review focuses on emerging targets - such as chemokines, proteases and the WNT pathway - that promote spinal cord neuroinflammation and chronic pain. It also highlights the anti-inflammatory and pro-resolution lipid mediators that act on immune cells, glial cells and neurons to resolve neuroinflammation, synaptic plasticity and pain. Targeting excessive neuroinflammation could offer new therapeutic opportunities for chronic pain and related neurological and psychiatric disorders.
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