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Updated: Mar 19, 2026

Development of Recombinant Proteins to Treat Chronic Pain
Published on: April 11, 2018
Interleukin-6: an emerging regulator of pathological pain
Ya-Qun Zhou1, Zheng Liu2, Zhi-Heng Liu3
1Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
Abstract:
Interleukin-6 is an inflammatory cytokine with wide-ranging biological effects. It has been widely demonstrated that neuroinflammation plays a critical role in the development of pathological pain. Recently, various pathological pain models have shown elevated expression levels of interleukin-6 and its receptor in the spinal cord and dorsal root ganglia. Additionally, the administration of interleukin-6 could cause mechanical allodynia and thermal hyperalgesia, and an intrathecal injection of anti-interleukin-6 neutralizing antibody alleviated these pain-related behaviors. These studies indicated a pivotal role of interleukin-6 in pathological pain. In this review, we summarize the recent progress in understanding the roles and mechanisms of interleukin-6 in mediating pathological pain associated with bone cancer, peripheral nerve injury, spinal cord injury, chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, complete Freund's adjuvant injection, and carrageenan injection. Understanding and regulating interleukin-6 could be an interesting lead to novel therapeutic strategies for pathological pain.
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