Advances in the Study of Microglia in Neuropathic Pain

Neuropathic pain is a kind of chronic pain triggered by nervous system injury or dysfunction, whose mechanism is complex and lacks effective treatment. Recent studies have shown that microglia, as core immune cells in the central nervous system, play a central by role in the development and maintenance of pain ). play a central role in the onset and maintenance of pain. In this paper, we systematically reviewed the activation mechanism of microglia and their multi-receptor regulatory network (including in neuropathic painreleasing pro-inflammatory factors (e.g., IL-1β, TNF-α), regulating key signaling pathways (e.g., TLR/NF-κB, NLRP3 inflammatory vesicles, JAK/STAT), and mediating neuron-glia interactions (e.g., BDNF-TrkB, ATP-P2X4P2X4, TLR4, RAGE, GLP-1R, CCR2, KOR, and GPR84) , and elucidated their amplification of pain signals through inflammatory factor release, synaptic plasticity regulation, and neuronal excitability enhancement. Meanwhile, this paper explores the potential value of therapeutic strategies targeting microglia receptors (e.g., antagonists, genetic interventions and electroacupuncture therapy), and looks forward to emerging research directions such as metabolic reprogramming, epigenetic regulation and gender differences, which will provide a theoretical basis for the development of precision analgesic therapies.