Pain Mechanisms and Treatments (43)
Botulinum Toxin and Related Neurological Disorders (23)
Hereditary Neurological Disorders (9)
Musculoskeletal pain and rehabilitation (7)
Ion channel regulation and function (7)
There has been significant progress in our understanding of the molecular basis by which nociceptors transduce and transmit noxious (tissue damaging) stimuli. This is dependent on ion channels, many of which are selectively expressed in nociceptors. Mutations in such proteins have recently been linked to inherited pain disorders in humans. An exemplar is the voltage-gated sodium channel (VGSC) Na1.7. Loss of function mutations in Na1.7 result in congenital inability to experience pain while gain-of-function mutations can cause a number of distinct neuropathic pain disorders, including erythromelalgia, paroxysmal extreme pain disorder, and small-fiber neuropathy. Furthermore, variants in the VGSCs 1.8 and 1.9 have also been linked to human pain disorders. There is a correlation between the impact of mutations on the biophysical properties of the ion channel and the severity of the clinical phenotype. Pain channelopathies are not restricted to VGSCs: a mutation in the ligand-gated ion channel TRPA1, (which responds to environmental irritants) causes a familial episodic pain disorder. Ion channel variants have also been linked to more common neuropathic pain disorders such as painful diabetic neuropathy. Not only do these ion channels present targets for novel analgesics, but stratification based on genotype may improve treatment selection of existing analgesics.
Themistocleous AC, Baskozos G, Blesneac I, Comini M, Megy K , et al.
Brain communications •
The aims of our study were to use whole genome sequencing in a cross-sectional cohort of patients to identify new variants in genes implicated in neuropathic pain, to determine the prevalence of known pathogenic variants and to understand the relationship between pathogenic variants and clinical presentation. Patients with extreme neuropathic pain phenotypes (both sensory loss and gain) were recruited from secondary care clinics in the UK and underwent whole genome sequencing as part of the National Institute for Health and Care Research Bioresource Rare Diseases project. A multidisciplinary team assessed the pathogenicity of rare variants in genes previously known to cause neuropathic pain disorders and exploratory analysis of research candidate genes was completed. Association testing for genes carrying rare variants was completed using the gene-wise approach of the combined burden and variance-component test SKAT-O. Patch clamp analysis was performed on transfected HEK293T cells for research candidate variants of genes encoding ion channels. The results include the following: (i) Medically actionable variants were found in 12% of study participants (205 recruited), including known pathogenic variants: c.2544T>C, p.Ile848Thr that causes inherited erythromelalgia, and c.340T>G, p.Cys133Tr variant that causes hereditary sensory neuropathy type-1. (ii) Clinically relevant variants were most common in voltage-gated sodium channels (Na). (iii) c.554G>A, pArg185His variant was more common in non-freezing cold injury participants than controls and causes a gain of function of Na1.7 after cooling (the environmental trigger for non-freezing cold injury). (iv) Rare variant association testing showed a significant difference in distribution for genes NGF, , , , , and the regulatory regions of genes , , and between European participants with neuropathic pain and controls. (v) The p.Ala172Val variant identified in participants with episodic somatic pain disorder demonstrated gain-of-channel function to agonist stimulation. Whole genome sequencing identified clinically relevant variants in over 10% of participants with extreme neuropathic pain phenotypes. The majority of these variants were found in ion channels. Combining genetic analysis with functional validation can lead to a better understanding as to how rare variants in ion channels lead to sensory neuron hyper-excitability, and how cold, as an environmental trigger, interacts with the gain-of-function Na1.7 p.Arg185His variant. Our findings highlight the role of ion channel variants in the pathogenesis of extreme neuropathic pain disorders, likely mediated through changes in sensory neuron excitability and interaction with environmental triggers.
Small fibre neuropathy (SFN) is characterised by structural injury selectively affecting small diameter sensory and/or autonomic axons. The clinical presentation is dominated by pain. SFN complicates a number of common diseases such as diabetes mellitus and is likely to be increasingly encountered. The diagnosis of SFN is demanding as clinical features can be vague and nerve conduction studies normal. New diagnostic techniques, in particular measurement of intraepidermal nerve fibre density, have significantly improved the diagnostic efficiency of SFN. Management is focused on the treatment of the underlying cause and analgesia, as there is no neuroprotective therapy. A recent and significant advance is the finding that a proportion of cases labelled as idiopathic SFN are in fact associated with gain of function mutations of the voltage-gated sodium channels Nav1.7 and Nav1.8 (encoded by the genes SCN9A and SCN10A, respectively). There is a further group of heritable painful conditions in which gain of function mutations in ion channels alter excitability of sensory neurones but do not cause frank axon degeneration; these include mutations in Nav1.7 (causing erythromelalgia and paroxysmal extreme pain disorder) and TRPA1 (resulting in familial episodic pain disorder). These conditions are exceptionally rare but have provided great insight into the nociceptive system as well as yielding potential analgesic drug targets. In patients with no pre-existing risk factor, the investigation of an underlying cause of SFN should be systematic and appropriate for the patient population. In this review, we focus on how to incorporate recent developments in the diagnosis and pathophysiology of SFN into clinical practice.