BioCentury
ARTICLE | Targets & Mechanisms

Bacteria's painful truth

September 19, 2013 7:00 AM UTC

In a surprise finding likely to alter how neurologists, immunologists and microbiologists view infection-associated pain, a group at Boston Children's Hospital has shown that bacteria can directly trigger action potentials in pain fibers, leading to the release of neuropeptides that suppress the inflammatory response.1 The findings point to a role for sensory neurons as immune modulators and could provide new bacterial targets for pain.

Until now, the immune system has been considered the primary instigator of pain from bacterial infections. Activation of immune cells triggers the release of inflammatory mediators such as cytokines, growth factors and prostaglandins, which are thought to cause pain by activating receptors on nerve terminals...