Chronic low back pain is a leading determinant of disability worldwide, and the cause of enormous health care expenditures. Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain condition characterized by widespread pain that is not explained by tissue lesions. Current treatments are of modest efficacy in both conditions, and opioids remain commonly prescribed. Because we know very little about molecular mechanisms promoting chronic low back pain and fibromyalgia, we are unable to target them. Furthermore, no biomarkers that support precision medicine for these conditions are available.
We aim to identify molecular pathways potentially involved in the pathophysiology of chronic low back pain and fibromyalgia by applying metabolomics in thoroughly phenotyped patients attending the Center for Pain Relief at the University of Washington. We aim to discover molecular pathways promoting chronic low back pain and fibromyalgia that would shift the focus of research to the development of target-specific therapeutics, and identify candidate biomarkers.