Cell therapy for neuropathic pain

QingHua Yin; TianHao Zou; ShuJun Sun; Dong Yang

doi:10.3389/fnmol.2023.1119223

Cell therapy for neuropathic pain

Front Mol Neurosci. 2023 Feb 27:16:1119223. doi: 10.3389/fnmol.2023.1119223. eCollection 2023.

Authors

QingHua Yin^{1

2}, TianHao Zou^{1

2}, ShuJun Sun^{1

2}, Dong Yang^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pain, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
² Institute of Anesthesia and Critical Care Medicine, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.

Abstract

Neuropathic pain (NP) is caused by a lesion or a condition that affects the somatosensory system. Pathophysiologically, NP can be ascribed to peripheral and central sensitization, implicating a wide range of molecular pathways. Current pharmacological and non-pharmacological approaches are not very efficacious, with over half of NP patients failing to attain adequate pain relief. So far, pharmacological and surgical treatments have focused primarily on symptomatic relief by modulating pain transduction and transmission, without treating the underlying pathophysiology. Currently, researchers are trying to use cell therapy as a therapeutic alternative for the treatment of NP. In fact, mounting pre-clinical and clinical studies showed that the cell transplantation-based therapy for NP yielded some encouraging results. In this review, we summarized the use of cell grafts for the treatment of NP caused by nerve injury, synthesized the latest advances and adverse effects, discussed the possible mechanisms to inform pain physicians and neurologists who are endeavoring to develop cell transplant-based therapies for NP and put them into clinical practice.

Keywords: analgesia; cell therapy; nerve injury; neuropathic pain; stem cell; transplantation.

Publication types

Review