ProPEL: A Protein-based Pain Exploration Lens

This project aims to advance translational pain research by developing ProPEL, an open-access database designed to bridge the gap between preclinical and human pain studies. What is the problem: Pain that persists beyond the healing of an injury can become chronic, representing a major medical and societal challenge due to its prevalence and significant impact on patients` quality of life. Despite decades of research, the mechanisms underlying chronic pain remain poorly understood, limiting the effectiveness of current treatments. Animal models have been crucial in pain research but are often met with ethical concerns and limited relevance to human pain mechanisms. Differences in the molecular makeup of pain-relevant tissues and pain responses across species complicate the translation of findings from animals to humans. Proteomics, which focuses on identifying and understanding protein changes related to disease mechanisms, offers critical insights into the origins of chronic pain and potential therapeutic targets. However, proteomics research requires advanced instruments, skilled scientists, and sophisticated bioinformatics tools, which are not widely available. Moreover, existing pain proteome datasets often lack direct validation with human data and remain challenging to access for non-experts, limiting their utility for further research. Our approach: ProPEL will address these issues by creating a user-friendly and open-access database that integrates proteomic data from both human and animal pain studies. This resource will facilitate the reuse of existing data, reduce reliance on animal experiments, and support more effective experimental designs. ProPEL will adhere to the principles of Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement (3Rs) and the FAIR guidelines (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). By providing better access to pain proteomics data, ProPEL aims to enhance our understanding of chronic pain mechanisms and accelerate the development of new treatments.