Patients with chronic pain are affected psychologically and socially. There are also individual differences in treatment efficacy. Insufficient research has been conducted on genetic polymorphisms that are related to individual differences in the susceptibility to chronic pain. Autoimmune disorders can lead to inflammation and chronic pain; therefore, we focused on the autoimmune-related protease-activated receptor 2 (PAR2/F2RL1) and interleukin 17A (IL-17A/IL17A) genes. PAR2 and IL-17A are associated with autoimmune diseases that lead to chronic pain, and PAR2 regulates T-helper (Th) cell activation and differentiation. We hypothesized that the PAR2 and IL-17A genes are associated with chronic pain. The present study used a case-control design to statistically examine associations between genetic polymorphisms and the vulnerability to chronic pain. The rs2243057 polymorphism of the PAR2 gene and rs3819025 polymorphism of the IL-17A gene were previously reported to be associated with pain- or autoimmune-related phenotypes. Thus, these polymorphisms were investigated in the present study. We found that both rs2243057 and rs3819025 were significantly associated with a susceptibility to chronic pain. The present findings revealed autoimmune-related genetic factors that are involved in individual differences in chronic pain, further aiding understanding of the pathomechanism that underlies chronic pain and possibly contributing to future personalized medicine.
Keywords: T-helper 17; astrocyte; chronic pain; interleukin 17A; protease-activated receptor 2.