Pain pathology

The Chronic pain is a most important challenge to clinical practice and fundamental science. The peripheral and central neural networks which mediate nociception display extensive plasticity in pathological disease states. The Disease-induced plasticity can take place at both structural and functional levels and is manifest as modifications in separate molecules, cellular function, synapses, and network activity. Current work has yielded a better understanding of communication within the neural matrix of physiological pain and has also brought significant advances in concepts of injury-induced hyperalgesia and tactile allodynia and how these may contribute to the complex, multidimensional condition of chronic pain. This analysis focuses on the molecular determinants of network plasticity in the central nervous system (CNS) and argues their relevance to the development of latest therapeutic approaches.