News Archive

Patients who develop autoimmunity to contactin-associated protein-like 2 (CASPR2), a neuronal adhesion protein, share a number of clinical features, with neuropathic pain being one of them. But the underlying…

The following is the second of a two-part report on research presented at the 2017 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting, which took place November 11-15 in Washington, DC. See…

Neuropathic pain typically features three hallmark symptoms: spontaneous pain, cold allodynia, and tactile allodynia. New research examining gene expression changes in mice now shows that the last two symptoms…

Pain sensitivity after an injury, such as damage to a nerve or an inflammatory insult, involves the synthesis of new proteins in pain neurons. This process is thought to…

Imagine suffering from agonizing pain due to advanced cancer, or recovering from surgery without receiving any pain medication. That might seem unthinkable in the US and other high-income countries.…

Diabetes is on the rise, and consequently, so is the persistent and often intractable pain experienced by many diabetic patients with nerve injury. However, researchers still have a poor…

For years, scientists have entertained the idea that chemogenetics—the ability to manipulate genetically defined cells using engineered receptors—might eventually become more than a research tool. If harnessed correctly by…

Despite decades of research, scientists still don’t know all the types of neurons that transmit the sensation of mechanical pain. Now, researchers add one more piece to the puzzle,…

The same genes and proteins that sculpt the developing nervous system are often called upon again in adulthood, even if for very different reasons. Now, a research team led…

On June 6, 2017, PRF hosted its 26th webinar, this one devoted to the topic of chronic pelvic pain. Julie Christianson, University of Kansas, Kansas City, US, delivered a…

Phosphorylation is one of many post-translational mechanisms that cells harness to regulate protein function. This process is usually described in textbooks as occurring exclusively inside cells. Recent studies, however,…

Sleep. Everyone needs it, but not everyone gets it—at least not enough of it. Now, new animal research builds the case that a lack of sleep has significant and…

Over half of all chronic pain patients also develop depression. Researchers know that short-term pain affects brain areas implicated in depression, but few studies have scrutinized the effects of…

Adverse effects of opioids can occur because the drugs act at both injured and healthy tissue, but if researchers could find a way to direct opioids only to the…