Novel strategies for the treatment of inflammatory hyperalgesia

Abstract

There is a large unmet medical need in the area of treatment of inflammatory pain initiated by tissue damage or inflammation that manifests as spontaneous pain and pain hypersensitivity (hyperalgesia).The current review focuses on the key mechanisms that produce hyperalgesia that accompanies inflammation. Also, the inflammatory mediators that interact with neurons to produce hyperalgesia are explored. As the dominant classes of analgesic drugs such as the NSAIDs and the opiates are limited by their side effects and tolerability, elucidation of the molecular mechanisms responsible for inflammatory pain provides novel opportunities for therapeutic approaches for managing inflammatory pain, with improved specificity, efficacy, and possibly with fewer toxic effects.