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Targeting Toll-like receptors to treat chronic pain

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Chronic pain affects millions of people worldwide. A new study presents a promising therapeutic strategy in which Toll-like receptor (TLR) 5 stimulation enables the analgesic compound, QX-314, to specifically enter and silence large fiber sensory neurons, which convey pain in the setting of injury.

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Figure 1: A strategy to treat persistent mechanical pain.

Katie Vicari/Nature Publishing Group

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Acknowledgements

Funding was provided by US National Institutes of Health NS084191, the Rita Allen Foundation and the American Pain Society to R.P.S.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cedric Peirs and Rebecca P. Seal are in the Departments of Neurobiology and Otolaryngology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, and at the Pittsburgh Center for Pain Research, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.,

    Cedric Peirs & Rebecca P Seal

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  1. Cedric Peirs
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  2. Rebecca P Seal
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Correspondence to Rebecca P Seal.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Peirs, C., Seal, R. Targeting Toll-like receptors to treat chronic pain. Nat Med 21, 1251–1252 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.3986

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