The Proteomics and Metabolomics of Pain

This article critically discusses the opportunities and challenges of proteomics and metabolomics in the context of pain research and clinical practice. Painful pathologies are extremely complex and often inadequately managed. In order to significantly improve therapeutic options of pain syndromes, a system-wide analysis of the underlying mechanisms is fundamental. To this end, the article highlights the potential of firmly integrating proteomics and metabolomics into the pain researcher’s toolbox. The article introduces technological aspects of mass spectrometry and also associated stumbling blocks for its standardization in clinical research. Lastly, it outlines the path towards personalized systems pain medicine via the definition of pain phenomes—from multilayered molecular data to phenotypical profiles and integrated analysis of disease networks.