Research progress and clinical application of biomarkers in neuropathic pain.
6 affiliations
- 1Department of Plastic Surgery, Changhai Hospital, No. 168 Changhai Road, Yangpu District, Shanghai, 200433, China.
- 2Department of Burn Surgery, Changhai Hospital, No. 168 Changhai Road, Yangpu District, Shanghai, 200433, China.
- 3Department of Anesthesiology, Changhai Hospital, No. 168 Changhai Road, Yangpu District, Shanghai, 200433, China.
- 4Department of Plastic Surgery, Changhai Hospital, No. 168 Changhai Road, Yangpu District, Shanghai, 200433, China. [email protected].
- 5Department of Burn Surgery, Changhai Hospital, No. 168 Changhai Road, Yangpu District, Shanghai, 200433, China. [email protected].
- 6Department of Burn Surgery, Changhai Hospital, No. 168 Changhai Road, Yangpu District, Shanghai, 200433, China. [email protected].
Abstract
Neuropathic pain (NP) is a subtype of refractory chronic pain that currently presents three major difficulties in diagnosis and therapy in that clinicians must depend on patient complaints for the diagnosis, physicians find it difficult to recognize the disease early, and the evaluation of efficacy is slow. This review surveys the research on NP biomarkers conducted to date and aims to provide a scientific basis and reference for the exact diagnosis and treatment of NP. Studies indicate that the core pathological mechanism producing NP and its changes is the pathological plastic changes which have occurred in the sensory nervous system and that distinct etiologies of NP are associated with unique pathological mechanisms. NP biomarkers exist in such facets of investigation as biochemical, electrophysiological, imaging, genetic and epigenetic studies. Each category of biomarkers can provide specific utility for the diagnosis and prognostic assessment of NP. However, the high heterogeneity of NP limits the clinical translatability of individual biomarkers. Therefore, a multimodal integration of biomarkers is required for NP diagnosis and treatment, utilizing strategies including multicenter clinical research and therapeutic interventions, integrated multi-omics data analysis, to progressively develop an increasingly precise diagnostic and therapeutic system. These efforts will progressively facilitate the transition of the NP diagnostic and therapeutic model from traditional empirical medicine to a data-driven paradigm.
Related
- Research progress and clinical translation prospects of multiple urinary biomarkers in non-invasive diagnosis of urothelial carcinoma
- Clinical research progress in hepatic cirrhosis
- Modular Functional Boron Delivery Agents for Boron Neutron Capture Therapy: Research Progress and Application Prospects
- Clinical recognition, management, and research progress of infantile perianal protrusion: a narrative review and literature-based case aggregation
- Research progress on the application of multi-scale computational methods in the research and development of anti-tuberculosis infection drugs
BibTeX
@article{zhang2026research,
title = {{Research progress and clinical application of biomarkers in neuropathic pain.}},
author = {Leibing Zhang and Haocheng Zhuang and Mingkun Ma and Shuyuan Xian and Wangzheqi Zhang and Hongda Bi and Shizhao Ji and Runzhi Huang},
journal = {The journal of headache and pain},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.1186/s10194-026-02489-7},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42972527},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Research progress and clinical application of biomarkers in neuropathic pain.
AU - Leibing Zhang
AU - Haocheng Zhuang
AU - Mingkun Ma
AU - Shuyuan Xian
AU - Wangzheqi Zhang
AU - Hongda Bi
AU - Shizhao Ji
AU - Runzhi Huang
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/05
JO - The journal of headache and pain
DO - 10.1186/s10194-026-02489-7
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42972527
AB - Neuropathic pain (NP) is a subtype of refractory chronic pain that currently presents three major difficulties in diagnosis and therapy in that clinicians must depend on patient complaints for the diagnosis, physicians find it difficult to recognize the disease early, and the evaluation of efficacy is slow. This review surveys the research on NP biomarkers conducted to date and aims to provide a scientific basis and reference for the exact diagnosis and treatment of NP. Studies indicate that the core pathological mechanism producing NP and its changes is the pathological plastic changes which have occurred in the sensory nervous system and that distinct etiologies of NP are associated with unique pathological mechanisms. NP biomarkers exist in such facets of investigation as biochemical, electrophysiological, imaging, genetic and epigenetic studies. Each category of biomarkers can provide specific utility for the diagnosis and prognostic assessment of NP. However, the high heterogeneity of NP limits the clinical translatability of individual biomarkers. Therefore, a multimodal integration of biomarkers is required for NP diagnosis and treatment, utilizing strategies including multicenter clinical research and therapeutic interventions, integrated multi-omics data analysis, to progressively develop an increasingly precise diagnostic and therapeutic system. These efforts will progressively facilitate the transition of the NP diagnostic and therapeutic model from traditional empirical medicine to a data-driven paradigm.
SN - 1129-2369
SN - 1129-2377
ER -