Papers of the Week

The mechanisms of chronic pain are complex, and genetic factors play an essential role in the development of chronic pain. Neuropathic pain (NP) and inflammatory pain (IP) are two primary components of chronic pain. Previous studies have uncovered some common biological processes in NP and IP. However, the shared genetic mechanisms remained poorly studied. We utilized multi-omics systematic analyses to investigate the shared genetic mechanisms of NP and IP. First, by integrating several genome-wide association studies (GWASs) with multi-omics data, we revealed the significant overlap of the gene co-expression modules in NP and IP. Further, we uncovered the shared biological pathways, including the previously reported mitochondrial electron transport and ATP metabolism, and stressed the role of genetic factors in chronic pain with neurodegenerative diseases. Second, we identified 24 conservative key drivers (KDs) contributing to NP and IP, containing two well-established pain genes, and , and some novel potential pain genes, such as and . The subnetwork of those KDs highlighted the processes involving the immune system. Finally, gene expression analysis of the KDs in mouse models underlined two of the KDs, and , with unidirectional regulatory functions in NP and IP. Our study provides strong evidence to support the current understanding of the shared genetic regulatory networks underlying NP and IP and potentially benefit the future common therapeutic avenues for chronic pain.