The Role of Spinal Cord CX3CL1/CX3CR1 Signalling in Chronic Pain

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Purpose of Review Chronic pain is a distressing condition that is ineffectively treated at present. In order to develop novel, more efficacious analgesics for chronic pain, a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms is required. Despite chronic pain initially being considered as a neurocentric process, the role of communication between immune cells and neurons has been shown to be essential to the modulation of chronic pain. In the spinal cord, chemokine-mediated communication between microglia and neurons has been shown to play a crucial mechanistic role in preclinical chronic pain. Recent Findings Here, we present convincing evidence specifically for the role of the neuronal chemokine, fractalkine and its receptor CX3CR1, which is expressed by microglia, in mediating neuronal/microglia crosstalk in the spinal cord in the context of preclinical pain behaviour. Summary In light of the compelling preclinical evidence and emerging clinical evidence, we consider the promising therapeutic potential of manipulating this signalling partnership for the treatment of chronic pain.