Pain After Covid-Multidisciplinary Action Network

Over 200 million patients (pts) worldwide have fatigue, widespread muscle pain, joint and
chest pain due to COIVD-19 infection. Little is known on onset, pathophysiology and clinical
history of chronic pain post-COVID, leaving doctors at loss when it comes to specifically
identify and diagnose pts and prescribe most effective treatments. To advance knowledge
on post-COVID chronic pain, to discuss current clinical gaps, develop potential solutions for
these pressing issues we propose a multidisciplinary consortium:
-clinicians working with long COVID pts and specific knowledge of chronic post-COVID pain
syndrome.
-clinical experts in chronic pain syndromes in specific settings: paediatric and chronic
postoperative pain, chronic pain neuromodulation;
-basic scientists applying genomics for a better understanding of pain pathophysiology and
using glycomics to predict long COVID and stratify the risk of pts to develop long COVID associated
severe illness;
-translational scientists, pharmacology and nanomedicine experts for development of new
nanotherapies to tackle chronic pain, inflammation and immune activation;
-startups, established biotech companies interested in development of new therapeutic tools
for pain, incl.an international CDMO involved in industrialization of
pharmaceutical/nutraceutical products, scientific associations (Redirect) for spreading the
culture of rational approach to chronic postoperative pain and inflammatory chronic pain.

We propose the creation of the Pain After Covid-Multidisciplinary Action Network
(PAC-MAN), a multidisciplinary team of patient representatives, healthcare professionals, basic and
translational scientists, and pharmaceutical companies to identify the most pressing challenges
associated with chronic pain symptoms after COVID-19, to build knowledge on specific aspects of post-
COVID chronic pain, to discuss current clinical gaps, and propose new possible diagnostic tools and
therapeutic solutions for this urgent issue. In order to address this multifaceted problem, we included in
our network experienced professionals with complementary expertise in medicine, science and
technology not only to ensure a comprehensive approach and a beneficial impact on the quality of life
of patients, but also to better understand its pathophysiology, to discover new biomarkers and to explore
future clinical solutions for widespread chronic pain syndromes through the synergy between new
diagnostic tools (genomics and glycomics), innovative biomedical technology (nanomedicine,
neuromodulation and innovative drug formulations) and emerging supplements and nutraceuticals.
Moreover, we will focus our attention on understanding whether patients with chronic pain are more
susceptible to infection, a phenomenon which is not yet entirely clear, although the interaction between
pain and the immune system is well known and must be taken into account, since it has been shown
that the persistence of pain and the absence of treatment can induce immunosuppression as recently
demonstrated by Prof Diatchenko and Dr Allegri in their publication on Science Translational Medicine.