Preprint Review Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Co-Players in Chronic Pain: Neuroinflammation and the Tryptophan-Kynurenine Metabolic Pathway

Version 1 : Received: 3 June 2021 / Approved: 4 June 2021 / Online: 4 June 2021 (09:09:26 CEST)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Tanaka, M.; Török, N.; Tóth, F.; Szabó, Á.; Vécsei, L. Co-Players in Chronic Pain: Neuroinflammation and the Tryptophan-Kynurenine Metabolic Pathway. Biomedicines 2021, 9, 897. Tanaka, M.; Török, N.; Tóth, F.; Szabó, Á.; Vécsei, L. Co-Players in Chronic Pain: Neuroinflammation and the Tryptophan-Kynurenine Metabolic Pathway. Biomedicines 2021, 9, 897.

Abstract

Chronic pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience that persists or recurs more than three months and may extend beyond the expected time of healing. Recently nociplastic pain has been introduced as a descriptor of mechanism of pain, which is due to disturbance of neural processing without actual or potential tissue damage, appearing to replace a concept of psychogenic pain. An interdisciplinary task force of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) compiled a systematic classification of clinical conditions associated with chronic pain, which was published in 2018 and will officially come into effect in 2022 in the 11th revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-11) by the World Health Organization. ICD-11 offers the option for recording the presence of psychological or social factors in chronic pain; however, cognitive, emotional, and social dimensions in the pathogenesis of chronic pain are missing. Earlier pain disorder was defined as a condition with chronic pain associated with psychological factors, but it was replaced with somatic symptom disorder with predominant pain in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (DSM-5) in 2013. Recently clinical nosology is trending toward highlighting neurological pathology of chronic pain, discounting psychological or social factors in the pathogenesis of pain. This review article discusses components of the pain pathway, the component-based mechanisms of pain, central and peripheral sensitization, roles of chronic inflammation, and the involvement of tryptophan-kynurenine pathway metabolites, exploring participations of psychosocial and behavioral factors in central sensitization of diseases progressing into development of chronic pain, comorbid diseases that commonly present a symptom of chronic pain, and psychiatric disorders that manifest chronic pain without obvious actual or potential tissue damage.

Keywords

chronic pain; nociceptive pain; neuropathic pain; nociplastic pain; psychogenic pain; neuroinflammation; kynurenine

Subject

Medicine and Pharmacology, Immunology and Allergy

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