Probing the Role of Sodium Channels in Painful Neuropathies: Observational Study

Neuropathic pain is a frequent feature of peripheral neuropathy causing a significant impact on patients' quality of life and health care costs. Not all individuals with neuropathy develop pain and it is not possible to predict who is more or less susceptible among those with similar risk exposure. Current inability to identify high-risk individuals hinders development and application of therapies to counteract neuropathic pain and to address targeted prevention strategies. Recently, the investigators Consortium has identified novel pathogenic mutations in genes encoding for two sodium channels (Nav1.7 and Nav1.8) known to play a critical role in the generation and conduction of action potentials in nociceptors and their terminal axons. This study was undertaken in a carefully selected group of patients with painful neuropathy using a candidate gene approach and directly revealed targets for new therapeutic strategies. This discover widened the spectrum of sodium channel-related pain disorders including conditions more common in the general population than those known so far. PROPANE STUDY, starting from the hypothesis of a common origin of neuropathic pain in a cohort of patients with predominantly small fibre neuropathy, aims to develop this original idea in a larger and well characterized study population, to provide evidence for the reliable stratification of patients at high risk and potential new treatments tailored on patients' clinical features, in order to improve their quality of life.