Gene Therapy Targeting Chloride Homeostasis Reverses Cancer-Related Neuropathic Pain

Chronic neuropathic pain is a major, debilitating clinical problem that remains difficult to treat, and over 90 percent of cancer patients who have had nerve damage caused by tumors, surgery, chemotherapy or radiation are suffered from neuropathic pain [1]. Because of our limited understanding of the mechanisms underlying neuropathic pain, the existing analgesics for neuropathic pain are not very effective and are associated with various side effects. Gene therapy strategies may target specific chronic pain mechanisms in a tissue-specific manner to be used to correct the abnormal functional proteins, modulate the activity of signal transduction pathways or overproduce various therapeutic secreted proteins.