Interleukin-17: A Putative Novel Pharmacological Target for Pathological Pain

Pathological pain imposes a huge burden on the economy and the lives of patients. At present, drugs used for the treatment of pathological pain have only modest efficacy and are also plagued by adverse effects and risk for misuse and abuse. Therefore, understanding the mechanisms of pathological pain is essential for the development of novel analgesics. Several lines of evidence indicate that interleukin-17 (IL-17) is upregulated in rodent models of pathological pain in the periphery and central nervous system. Besides, the administration of IL-17 antibody alleviated pathological pain. Moreover, IL-17 administration led to mechanical allodynia which was alleviated by the IL-17 antibody. In this review, we summarized and discussed the therapeutic potential of targeting IL-17 for pathological pain. The upregulation of IL-17 promoted the development of pathological pain by promoting neuroinflammation, enhancing the excitability of dorsal root ganglion neurons, and promoting the communication of glial cells and neurons in the spinal cord. In general, the existing research shows that IL-17 is an attractive therapeutic target for pathologic pain, but the underlying mechanisms still need to be investigated.