Neuroimmune signatures in chronic low back pain subtypes
Abstract
We recently showed that patients with different chronic pain conditions (such as chronic low back pain, fibromyalgia, migraine and Gulf War illness) demonstrated elevated brain and/or spinal cord levels of the glial marker 18-kDa translocator protein (TSPO), which suggests that neuroinflammation might be a pervasive phenomenon observable across multiple aetiologically heterogeneous pain disorders. Interestingly, the spatial distribution of this neuroinflammatory signal appears to exhibit a degree of disease specificity (e.g. with respect to the involvement of the primary somatosensory cortex), suggesting that different pain conditions may exhibit distinct ‘neuroinflammatory signatures’. To explore this hypothesis further, we tested whether neuroinflammatory signal can characterize putative aetiological subtypes of chronic low back pain patients based on clinical presentation. Specifically, we explored neuroinflammation in patients whose chronic low back pain either did or did not radiate to the leg (i.e. ‘radicular’ versus ‘axial’ back pain).
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Sep 16, 2021
- Source ID
- 10.1093/brain/awab336
Entities
People
- Angel Torrado-Carvajal
- Atreyi Saha
- Ciprian Catana
- Daniel Albrecht
- Erin Morrissey
- Jacob M. Hooker
- Jeungchan Lee
- Julie Price
- Ludovica Brusaferri
- Marco L Loggia
- Michael S Placzek
- Minhae Kim
- Oluwaseun Akeju
- Paulina Knight
- Robert R. Edwards
- Roberta Sclocco
- Vitaly Napadow
- Yi Zhang
- Zeynab Alshelh
Organizations
- Harvard Medical School
- King Juan Carlos University
- Logan University
- National Institutes of Health
- United States Department of Defense