For decades, basic research on the underlying mechanisms of nociception has held promise to translate into efficacious treatments for patients with pain. Despite great improvement in the understanding of pain physiology and pathophysiology, translation to novel, effective treatments for acute and chronic pain has however been limited, and they remain an unmet medical need. In this opinion paper bringing together pain researchers from very different disciplines, the opportunities and challenges of translational pain research are discussed. The many factors that may prevent the successful translation of bench observations into useful and effective clinical applications are reviewed, including interspecies differences, limited validity of currently available preclinical disease models of pain, and limitations of currently used methods to assess nociception and pain in non‐human and human models of pain. Many paths are explored to address these issues, including the backward translation of observations made in patients and human volunteers into new disease models that are more clinically relevant, improved generalization by taking into account age and sex differences, and the integration of psychobiology into translational pain research. Finally, it is argued that preclinical and clinical stages of developing new treatments for pain can be improved by better preclinical models of pathological pain conditions alongside revised methods to assess treatment‐induced effects on nociception in human and non‐human animals.

中文翻译：

---

转化性疼痛研究的挑战和机遇——欧洲疼痛联合会（EFIC）转化性疼痛研究工作组的意见文件

几十年来，关于伤害感受潜在机制的基础研究有望转化为对疼痛患者的有效治疗。尽管对疼痛生理学和病理生理学的理解有了很大的进步，但转化为治疗急性和慢性疼痛的新颖、有效的治疗方法却很有限，而且它们仍然是一个未满足的医疗需求。在这篇将来自不同学科的疼痛研究人员聚集在一起的意见论文中，讨论了转化性疼痛研究的机遇和挑战。回顾了许多可能阻碍将实验室观察成功转化为有用和有效的临床应用的因素，包括种间差异、目前可用的临床前疼痛疾病模型的有效性有限、目前用于评估非人类和人类疼痛模型中伤害感受和疼痛的方法的局限性。探索了许多途径来解决这些问题，包括将患者和人类志愿者的观察结果反向转化为更具有临床相关性的新疾病模型，通过考虑年龄和性别差异来改进泛化，以及将心理生物学整合到转化性疼痛中研究。最后，有人认为，开发新的疼痛治疗方法的临床前和临床阶段可以通过更好的病理性疼痛状况的临床前模型以及改进的方法来评估治疗对人类和非人类动物伤害感受的影响。包括将患者和人类志愿者的观察结果反向翻译成更具有临床相关性的新疾病模型，通过考虑年龄和性别差异改进泛化，以及将心理生物学整合到转化疼痛研究中。最后，有人认为，开发新的疼痛治疗方法的临床前和临床阶段可以通过更好的病理性疼痛状况的临床前模型以及改进的方法来评估治疗对人类和非人类动物伤害感受的影响。包括将患者和人类志愿者的观察结果反向翻译成更具有临床相关性的新疾病模型，通过考虑年龄和性别差异改进泛化，以及将心理生物学整合到转化疼痛研究中。最后，有人认为，开发新的疼痛治疗方法的临床前和临床阶段可以通过更好的病理性疼痛状况的临床前模型以及改进的方法来评估治疗对人类和非人类动物伤害感受的影响。