Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Chronic pain

Neuroimmune interferon signals sustain arthritis pain

Pain in rheumatoid arthritis often persists independently of joint inflammation. In this issue, Su et al. demonstrate that sustained non-canonical type 1 interferon signaling within peripheral sensory neurons maintains hypersensitivity long after inflammation subsides, revealing a potential therapeutic avenue for chronic arthritic pain.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Type 1 interferons drive persistent pain in a mouse model of rheumatoid arthritis.

References

  1. Basbaum, A. I., Bautista, D. M., Scherrer, G. & Julius, D. Cell 139, 267–284 (2009).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Pattison, L. A., Krock, E., Svensson, C. I. & Smith, E. S. J. Pain 162, 714–717 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Lim, D. H. J. Rheum. Dis. 30, 1–2 (2023).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Schaible, H. G. & Schmidt, R. F. J. Neurophysiol. 60, 2180–2195 (1988).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Cook, A. D., Christensen, A. D., Tewari, D., McMahon, S. B. & Hamilton, J. A. Trends Immunol. 39, 240–255 (2018).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Su, J. et al. Nat. Neurosci. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-026-02234-y (2026).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Li, Y. et al. Arthritis Res. Ther. 22, 120 (2020).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Ivashkiv, L. B. & Donlin, L. T. Nat. Rev. Immunol. 14, 36–49 (2014).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  9. Barragán-Iglesias, P. et al. J. Neurosci. 40, 3517–3532 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  10. Franco-Enzástiga, Ú. et al. iScience 27, 108808 (2024).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  11. Wong, C. et al. Sci. Adv. 9, eadh9603 (2023).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  12. Donnelly, C. R. et al. Nature 591, 275–280 (2021).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  13. Defaye, M. et al. J. Clin. Invest. 134, e176474 (2024).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  14. Lee, S. H. et al. Brain Behav. Immun. 121, 29–42 (2024).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Isaac M. Chiu.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Staurengo-Ferrari, L., Wong, C. & Chiu, I.M. Neuroimmune interferon signals sustain arthritis pain. Nat Neurosci (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-026-02251-x

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Version of record:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-026-02251-x

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing