Pain and chronic pain after injury and nerve damage are big issues that affect many people. New treatments and better ways to diagnose and target pain are urgently needed. Pain is perceived differently by each person. What causes severe pain for one person might not be as painful for others. Similarly, some people respond to treatment and some not. This makes it is very difficult to measure pain because it is affected by behaviour, expectation and other psychological factors. If we would have a more objective way to measure pain, it would help health professionals to better diagnose and manage pain.
Professor Paul Rolan, University of Adelaide
Dr Porhan Kang, Flinders Medical Centre Adelaide
Dr Michael Zenon, Flinders Medical Centre Adelaide
Professor Rainer Haberberger, Flinders University, Adelaide
Dr Dusan Matusica, Flinders University, Adelaide
The project was awarded $A70,066 over two years through the ANZCA research grants program in 2018.
New treatments and ways to diagnose and target pain are urgently needed, as pain and chronic pain after injury and nerve damage affect many people’s lives. Pain is perceived differently by individuals, and what causes severe pain for one might not for others. With pain affected by behaviour, expectation, and other psychological factors, it is very difficult to measure. Many treatments only work in a limited proportion of patients, necessitating multiple trials of drug therapy, which may be ineffective, yet expose patients to unwanted side effects.
A more objective way to measure pain would help health professionals to better diagnose and manage it.
In this research, completed in 2024, the team aimed to determine whether it is possible to find measurable markers for pain in samples of human cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). To do that, they isolated tiny vesicles from the cerebrospinal fluid, inside of which are very small molecules, RNAs, that might be linked specifically to pain.
After isolating RNAs from these vesicles the team compared their diversity and composition between people with diabetes who suffered ongoing pain and those who did not. They found molecules that were present in the CSF of people with ongoing pain, but absent in those without pain. In addition, they found that the structure of those molecules seemed to be different.
This is the first study to have ever found small RNAs in the cerebrospinal fluid that are linked to pain.
The investigators will now confirm these results, and use the information to develop a kit to make it easier to track pain progression in patients who suffer ongoing pain. This would be especially useful for patients who have an intrathecal pump exchanging anti-pain medication with CSF, as the exchanged CSF could be used for tests including the efficacy of medications.
Invited talk School of Biomedicine seminar series, The University of Adelaide, 2022. Title: How is your pain? The search for tools to measure pain.
Invited talk at the University, Essen, Germany in 2023 Title: Pain management using a biochip? Harnessing the capacities of nociceptors.
Poster on the meeting of the Australasian Pain Society, Melbourne 2025 Title: Exosomal microRNAs in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with diabetic neuropathy.