TY - JOUR
T1 - Spontaneous activity in peripheral sensory nerves
T2 - a systematic review
AU - Choi, Dongchan
AU - Goodwin, George
AU - Stevens, Edward B
AU - Soliman, Nadia
AU - Namer, Barbara
AU - Denk, Franziska
N1 - Funding Information:
D.C. was funded by a PhD studentship from Mundipharma. F.D. is the recipient of a Medical Research Foundation Prize (MRF-160-0015-ELP-DENK-C0844). G.G. is funded by an Advanced Pain Discovery Platform UKRI MRC grant (MR/W027518/1). B.N. is supported by the German research council (DFG NA 970 3-1, 6-2 and 7-2 and supported by a grant from the Interdisciplinary Center for Clinical Research within the faculty of Medicine at the RWTH Aachen University). N.S. is funded by a Jennie Gwynn postdoctoral career development fellowship.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 Lippincott Williams and Wilkins. All rights reserved.
PY - 2024/5/1
Y1 - 2024/5/1
N2 - In the peripheral nervous system, spontaneous activity in sensory neurons is considered to be one of the 2 main drivers of chronic pain states, alongside neuronal sensitization. Despite this, the precise nature and timing of this spontaneous activity in neuropathic pain is not well-established. Here, we have performed a systematic search and data extraction of existing electrophysiological literature to shed light on which fibre types have been shown to maintain spontaneous activity and over what time frame. We examined both in vivo recordings of preclinical models of neuropathic pain, as well as microneurography recordings in humans. Our analyses reveal that there is broad agreement on the presence of spontaneous activity in neuropathic pain conditions, even months after injury or years after onset of neuropathic symptoms in humans. However, because of the highly specialised nature of the electrophysiological methods used to measure spontaneous activity, there is also a high degree of variability and uncertainty around these results. Specifically, there are very few directly controlled experiments, with less directly comparable data between human and animals. Given that spontaneous peripheral neuron activity is considered to be a key mechanistic feature of chronic pain conditions, it may be beneficial to conduct further experiments in this space.
AB - In the peripheral nervous system, spontaneous activity in sensory neurons is considered to be one of the 2 main drivers of chronic pain states, alongside neuronal sensitization. Despite this, the precise nature and timing of this spontaneous activity in neuropathic pain is not well-established. Here, we have performed a systematic search and data extraction of existing electrophysiological literature to shed light on which fibre types have been shown to maintain spontaneous activity and over what time frame. We examined both in vivo recordings of preclinical models of neuropathic pain, as well as microneurography recordings in humans. Our analyses reveal that there is broad agreement on the presence of spontaneous activity in neuropathic pain conditions, even months after injury or years after onset of neuropathic symptoms in humans. However, because of the highly specialised nature of the electrophysiological methods used to measure spontaneous activity, there is also a high degree of variability and uncertainty around these results. Specifically, there are very few directly controlled experiments, with less directly comparable data between human and animals. Given that spontaneous peripheral neuron activity is considered to be a key mechanistic feature of chronic pain conditions, it may be beneficial to conduct further experiments in this space.
KW - Animals
KW - Humans
KW - Chronic Pain/complications
KW - Neuralgia/etiology
KW - Peripheral Nerves
KW - Peripheral Nervous System
KW - Sensory Receptor Cells/physiology
KW - Chronic Disease
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85190753716&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003115
DO - 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003115
M3 - Article
C2 - 37991272
SN - 0304-3959
VL - 165
SP - 983
EP - 996
JO - Pain
JF - Pain
IS - 5
ER -