Development of Recombinant Proteins to Treat Chronic Pain

J Vis Exp. 2018 Apr 11:(134):57071. doi: 10.3791/57071.

Abstract

Chronic pain is difficult to treat and new approaches to resolve persistent pain are urgently needed. Anti-inflammatory cytokines are promising candidates for treating debilitating pain conditions due to their capacity to regulate aberrant neuro-immune interactions. However, physiologically they work in a network of various cytokines, and therefore their therapeutic effect may not be optimal when used as stand-alone drugs. To overcome this limitation, we developed a fusion protein of the anti-inflammatory cytokines IL4 and IL10. Here, we describe the methods for production and quality control of IL4-10 recombinant fusion protein and we test the effectiveness of the IL4-10 fusion protein to resolve pain in a mouse model of persistent inflammatory pain.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Video-Audio Media

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Chronic Pain
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Mice
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins / metabolism*
  • Transfection

Substances

  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins