Mitogen-activated proteins kinases pathway and pathological pain sensitization / 中国病理生理杂志

ABSTRACT

Pathological pain or clinical pain is caused by tissue and nerve injuries, and is usually chronic and mainly divided into inflammatory pain and neuropathic pain. Pathological pain is typically characterized by hyperalgesia (increased responsiveness to noxious stimuli) and allodynia (painful responses to normally innocuous stimuli). The mitogen-activated proteins kinases (MAPKs) are a family of evolutionally conserved molecules that play a critical role in cell signaling, consisting of extracellular signal regulated kinase (ERK), p38, and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), which play an important role in neural plasticity of pathological pain. Inhibition of MAPKs alleviates inflammatory pain and neuropathic pain in different animal models. It is very important to study the inhibition of MAPKs as a therapeutic approach to treat pathological pain.