Hitting pain where it hurts

The molecular mechanisms of neuropathic pain are not well understood, and existing treatments typically provide only temporary relief-often with significant side effects-by blocking pain signaling instead of stopping pain at the source. Now, Boston-area researchers have shed new light on the mechanisms of acute and chronic neuropathic pain, offering potential new targets for both indications.

In a Nature Medicine article published online Feb. 10, researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Children's Hospital Boston and Massachusetts General Hospitalreported that two matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) play distinct roles in different types of glial cells in the development of neuropathic pain in mice...