Shafaq Sikandar

Sensory Neurophysiology at Queen Mary University of London, UK

Title: Immunological mechanisms of musculoskeletal pain

Abstract

The interaction between sensory neurones and immune cells has important consequences for pain processing in the peripheral and central nervous system. The incidence of pain in the sickness response was one of the first discoveries in animal models to reveal the role of neuroimmune signalling in pain. Since the late 20th century observation that Interleukin-1β modulates synaptic plasticity in nociceptive neurons, several cytokines and chemokines expressed by, neuronal, immune, and glial cells in the PNS and CNS have been implicated in nociceptive pathways. This talk will detail advances in our understanding of how neuroimmune interactions are crucial for sensitisation of peripheral and central neurons. Comparison of findings in animal models and patient cohorts with musculoskeletal pain will be used, including evidence for peripheral immunological mechanisms of chronic widespread pain. Finally, talks will highlight studies revealing new, promising pharmacological targets for pain relief at the neuroimmune interface. This workshop will highlight key mechanisms of pain at the neuro-immune interface. Audience members will be able to:

1. Define which immune cells mediate persistent/nociplastic pain

2. Identify neuro-immune signaling pathways in the peripheral and central nervous systems underlying persistent pain

3. Describe mechanisms underlying homeostasis in pain and inflammation.

Biography

Professor Shafaq Sikandar is the group leader of the Sensory Neurophysiology lab at the William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London. Her research training was based on rodent and human models to study the neurophysiology of pain. Shafaq’s PhD training was in the Pharmacology department in University College London, and she continued postdoctoral training in the Anaesthesiology department of University of California San Diego and in the Wolfson Institute of Biomedical Research in UCL. In 2018 she was awarded a Versus Arthritis fellowship. Her lab runs preclinical and clinical programmes of work investigating neuronal mechanisms underlying the transition from acute to chronic pain, with a focus on musculoskeletal pain, cancer pain and neuro-immune interactions. Preclinical studies are centered around in vivo and back translational approaches in mouse models, in combination with molecular biology. Clinical studies are focussed on patients with post-surgical pain and arthritis.

2nd International Conference on Neurology and Brain Disorders

Shafaq Sikandar

Title: Immunological mechanisms of musculoskeletal pain

Abstract

Biography

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