Development of viral vectors for gene therapy for chronic pain.

Chronic pain is a major health concern that affects millions of people. There are no adequate long-term therapies for chronic pain sufferers, leading to significant cost for both society and the individual. The most commonly used therapy for chronic pain is the application of opioid analgesics and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, but these drugs can lead to addiction and may cause side effects. Further studies of the mechanisms of chronic pain have opened the way for development of new treatment strategies, one of which is gene therapy. The key to gene therapy is selecting safe and highly efficient gene delivery systems that can deliver therapeutic genes to overexpress or suppress relevant targets in specific cell types. Here we review several promising viral vectors that could be applied in gene transfer for the treatment of chronic pain and further discuss the possible mechanisms of genes of interest that could be delivered with viral vectors for the treatment of chronic pain.

慢性疼痛是一个重大的健康问题，影响着数百万人。对于慢性疼痛患者而言，没有足够的长期治疗方法，这给社会和个人都带来了巨大的成本。慢性疼痛最常用的治疗方法是使用阿片类镇痛药和非甾体抗炎药，但这些药物可能导致成瘾，并可能产生副作用。对慢性疼痛机制的进一步研究为开发新的治疗策略开辟了道路，其中一种是基因治疗。基因治疗的关键是选择安全且高效的基因传递系统，该系统能够将治疗性基因传递到特定细胞类型中，以过度表达或抑制相关靶点。在此，我们综述了几种有前景的可应用于慢性疼痛基因转移治疗的病毒载体，并进一步讨论了可通过病毒载体传递用于慢性疼痛治疗的目的基因的可能机制。