Emerging role of nanomedicine in the treatment of neuropathic pain

Abstract

Neuropathic pain (NeP) is a complex chronic pain condition associated with nerve injury. Approximately, 7–10% of the general population across the globe is suffering from this traumatic condition, but the existing treatment strategies are inadequate to deliver pain relief and are associated with severe adverse effects. To overcome these limitations, lot of research is focussed on developing new molecules with high potency and fewer side effects, novel cell and gene-based therapies and modification of the previously approved drugs by different formulation aspects. Nanomedicine has attracted a lot of attention in the treatment of many diverse pathological conditions because of their unique physiochemical and biological properties. In this manuscript, we highlighted the emerging role of nanomedicine in different therapies (drug, cell and gene), also we emphasised on the challenges associated with nanomedicine such as development of well-characterised nanoformulation, scaling of batches with reproducible results and toxicity along with this we discussed about the future of nanomedicine in the treatment of neuropathic pain.

Keywords:

• Neuropathic pain
• nanomedicine
• drug therapy
• gene therapy
• challenges

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemical and Fertilisers, Govt of India, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India and Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, Early Career Research Grant (ECR/2016/001846) awarded to Dr Vinod Tiwari.