Development of a clinically-relevant SCI-induced pain model

Birmingham Va Medical Center, Birmingham AL

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Abstract

? DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Neuropathic pain is a chronic condition of heterogeneous symptoms resulting from peripheral and/or central nerve damage characterized by hyperalgesia and allodynia. Tragically, an estimated 60-80% of persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) experience neuropathic pain with 1/3 describing their pain as severe. Although there are currently preclinical models of SCI-induced pain, there have been few successes in translation of new treatment from rodent models to clinical practice, suggesting that development of highly clinically-relevant preclinical model will facilitate discovery and translation of new treatments. Since pigs are very similar to humans in many aspects of physiology and pathophysiology, we hypothesize that a porcine model of SCI- induced neuropathic pain is a much need tool to improve the discovery of new treatments. Thus, we propose to assess and detail the porcine spinal cord neuroanatomy using state-of-the art neuronavigation and anatomical characterizations, as are used in clinical practice. We will also evaluate post-SCI neuropathic pain using procedures that mimic clinical evaluations and include supraspinal responses.