Is Neuropathy Really Gliopathy?

I found this excellent website from posting by Dr. Jan M. Keppel Hesselink, Professor molecular pharmacology, director Institute neuropathic pain: http://www.neuropathie.nu/. It represents a new way of understanding root causes and potential therapies for Neuropathic Pain. Here're highlights:

Gliopathic pain: is a brand new term for what we always thought to be neuropathic pain. It refers to pain related to neuropathic pain, however, the primary driver of this pain is most probably more linked to glia and asterocytes. The mechanism of gliopathic pain is the hyperactivation of glia cells, which results in neuropathic pain.

The role of Glia and Astrocytes:Glia and astrocytes play a central role in neuropathic pain, and gliopathic pain, or asteropathic pain will become new synonyms for neuropathic pain. In a recent hallmark paper the term 'Gliopathic pain' was coined.

This is a reason to put our magnifying glass on glia. Gliamodulating drugs will become a new class of neuropathic drugs, the so called gliopathic modulating drugs, and the first prototype, the endogenous fatty acid palmitoylethanolamide, has already been explored in positive proof of principle studies.

For more than a century doctors are aware of the special properties of glia in response to injury. In Germany in 1894 professor Franz Nissl decribed the reaction of glial cells in relation to the nerve fibers in the spinal cord and highlighted their morphological changes after injury. Microglia becomes mores bigger and more abundant after injury and these glial responses can be seen as a biological reponse to promote nerve repair after injury. However, this response can go berzerk and might be one of the most important mechanisms leading to neuropathic pain.

This is a short synopsis. There is a wealth of more information on the website. That said, I will be posting more on Gliopathic Pain.