Oxidized lipids in the treatment of chronic or neuropathic pain

Neuropathic pain is a debilitating disease with poor treatment options. Clinical investigations conclude that early therapeutic intervention is crucial for increasing the therapeutic success and for ameliorating neuropathic pain. However, in patients with diabetes or patients that suffer from adverse events of chemotherapy, the onset of neuropathic pain is difficult to estimate. For this reason, biomarkers represent important diagnostic markers that may be used for therapeutic strategies and, in an ideal case, for the prediction of onset, intensity and duration of neuropathic pain even before the first symptoms arise in patients. Using animal models of neuropathic pain, we observe that oxidized lipids and epoxylipids are generated in nervous tissue and plasma even before neuropathic pain arises in the animals. We therefore suggest determination of the concentrations of these lipids by mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) in the plasma of patients as potential biomarkers for neuropathic pain. Using this method, high-risk patients may be identified early and pharmacological treatment may start before neuropathic pain is established. The early treatment may lead to a reduction or even prevention of neuropathic pain in these patients