TY - JOUR
T1 - Pain in neuromyelitis optica-prevalence, pathogenesis and therapy
AU - Bradl, Monika
AU - Kanamori, Yoko
AU - Nakashima, Ichiro
AU - Misu, Tatsuro
AU - Fujihara, Kazuo
AU - Lassmann, Hans
AU - Sandkühler, Jürgen
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Takashi Yamamura for being the first to call our attention to the connection between neuromyelitis optica and pain. Our work is supported by the Austrian Science Fund (grant numbers P25240-B24 to M.B., I916-B13 [International Programme, Eugène Devic European Network] to H.L. and P22306-B19 to J.S.), and in part by the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan to K.F.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.
PY - 2014/9
Y1 - 2014/9
N2 - Terrible, agonizing, wretched, sickening and unbearable-these are words frequently used by patients with neuromyelitis optica (NMO) to describe a very common symptom of their disease: pain. More than 80% of patients with NMO experience pain from this condition, which severely affects their quality of life. At present, there is no known therapy that produces satisfactory relief from NMO-associated pain. In fact, contemporary pain therapy is largely ineffective in these patients, suggesting that the mechanisms underlying pain in NMO differ substantially from those of other treatable causes of pain. Until now, the near-complete neglect of research into pain mechanisms in NMO has precluded rational pain therapy. In this Perspectives article, expertise from the fields of neuroimmunology, neurology and pain research is combined to explore, for the first time, the mechanisms underlying pain in patients with NMO, and to identify molecular and cellular targets for therapy.
AB - Terrible, agonizing, wretched, sickening and unbearable-these are words frequently used by patients with neuromyelitis optica (NMO) to describe a very common symptom of their disease: pain. More than 80% of patients with NMO experience pain from this condition, which severely affects their quality of life. At present, there is no known therapy that produces satisfactory relief from NMO-associated pain. In fact, contemporary pain therapy is largely ineffective in these patients, suggesting that the mechanisms underlying pain in NMO differ substantially from those of other treatable causes of pain. Until now, the near-complete neglect of research into pain mechanisms in NMO has precluded rational pain therapy. In this Perspectives article, expertise from the fields of neuroimmunology, neurology and pain research is combined to explore, for the first time, the mechanisms underlying pain in patients with NMO, and to identify molecular and cellular targets for therapy.
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U2 - 10.1038/nrneurol.2014.129
DO - 10.1038/nrneurol.2014.129
M3 - Review article
C2 - 25072195
AN - SCOPUS:84908096180
VL - 10
SP - 529
EP - 536
JO - Nature Clinical Practice Neurology
JF - Nature Clinical Practice Neurology
SN - 1759-4758
IS - 9
ER -