Could your gene therapy be applied to pain-causing autoimmune diseases?
This question was inspired by this video presentation as part of the Pain Network program: The Voice of Student Researchers.
Yes, in theory, gene therapy could really be useful for autoimmune diseases. If we take rheumatoid arthritis as an example. It could help regulate inflammation or rebalance the immune system, thereby reducing pain. We might think of introducing genes that produce anti-inflammatory molecules in the joints, or a gene that desensitizes sensory neurons locally.
What’s more, each autoimmune disease presents its own unique challenge. Many lead to chronic pain, but the mechanism of action and tissues affected are not always the same: Crohn’s disease affects the digestive system, rheumatoid arthritis the joints, and so on. Gene therapies have the advantage of being able to target a gene and a site very specifically. It is therefore possible to envisage therapies to treat pain caused by autoimmune disease, but this would require a great deal of time, resources and research. Moreover, given the unique complexities presented by each disease, this would not be a single therapy, but rather, a case-by-case approach.
For the time being, this remains theory. A lot of research needs to be done to combine existing autoimmune disease models in mice and identify genes that would be the best candidates for introduction by gene therapy. Then we need to be able to show that it actually reduces pain.
There are many possibilities, but it would take a major investment (finance, research, time) to prove that it works.
