WP2

The main aim of WP2 is to study neuro-immune interactions in the context of chronic pain in two different but complementary in vivo models. This will allow achievement of the following two core objectives:

1. Identification of new and 2. Validation of known neuro-immune mediators that contribute to the emergence of chronic pain.

This will be achieved with the help of novel or underused technologies.

Over several years now, the chronic pain field has attempted to garner information about the transcriptional changes that take place in the dorsal root ganglion (DRG) and other pain relevant areas after nerve injury. However, the complex cell composition of these areas, together with the immune cell infiltration which accompanies most pain states, has hindered interpretation of these datasets.
NGN-PET will try to overcome these limitations using novel experimental approaches.

WP2 will also validate the mediators that emerge from WPs 3, 4 & 5 for their therapeutic or diagnostic potential in an in vivo setting.