Do fragments and glycosylated isoforms of alpha-1-antitrypsin in CSF mirror spinal pathophysiological mechanisms in chronic peripheral neuropathic pain? An exploratory, discovery phase study

Post-translational modifications (PTMs) generate a tremendous protein diversity from the ~ 20,000 protein-coding genes of the human genome. In chronic pain conditions, exposure to pathological processes in the central nervous system could lead to disease-specific PTMs detectable in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). In a previous hypothesis-generating study, we reported that seven out of 260 CSF proteins highly discriminated between neuropathic pain...