Disease has a location.

Cancer has FDG.

Chronic Pain & Neurodegenerative Disease got nothing.

We make it visible.

PainVox develops Sigma-1 receptor PET radiotracers that localize the molecular drivers of chronic pain and neurodegenerative disease, so care can target the source instead of the symptom.

In treatments guided by PainVox’s PV-1 / FTC-146, most patients have a complete recovery from pain.

PainVox logo with circular dot pattern

One receptor connects two of medicine's hardest problems.

Both have largely escaped visual diagnosis until now.

The Sigma-1 receptor is a chaperone protein concentrated at the endoplasmic reticulum. Its activity rises when neurons are stressed, sensitized, or injured, making it a marker of pathology that anatomical imaging cannot see.

Our lead radiotracer, FTC-146 (PV-1), binds the receptor with high selectivity and reveals it on PET, turning an invisible molecular signal into a precise location. The same biology flags peripheral pain generators and the cellular stress of neurodegeneration, which is why one platform reaches across both.

Molecular, not structural

Reports the biology of pain and neuronal stress, not anatomy alone, revealing sources MRI and CT miss.

Selective by design

High-affinity binding produces a clean, interpretable signal physicians can act on.

Actionable and verifiable

A hotspot is a location a clinician can treat, then re-image to confirm.

Two frontiers, one imaging platform.

Lead clinical program

Chronic pain

When MRI, X-ray, and CT show no clear source, clinicians risk treating the wrong site. FTC-146 PET localizes peripheral pain generators, giving interventional physicians a specific target for nerve blocks, decompression, or resection, and a way to confirm the source was treated.

Most mature program. Peer-reviewed clinical results in PAIN and many other journals.

Emerging direction

Neurodegenerative disease

The Sigma-1 receptor is central to the stress pathways that fail in neurodegeneration. It is dysregulated in ALS, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's, and receptor gene mutations cause inherited ALS. PainVox is extending the platform toward neurodegenerative imaging, where the same chemistry could help detect and stage disease.

Early-stage. Research and translational development.

200+ Patients Scanned
DoD and NIH Funded

University of Mississippi logo with a Greek-style columned building, "1848," and the text "The University of Mississippi."
Stanford Medicine School of Medicine logo with emblem

Chronic pain remains an area of substantial unmet medical need, affecting millions yet lacking effective diagnostic and therapeutic solutions. A major advance in this space has the potential to profoundly improve care and outcomes for countless patients suffering from chronic pain syndromes.

PainVox’s innovative PET radiotracer technology represents such a breakthrough. In early clinical trials this radiopharmaceutical located occult pain generators across a variety of conditions, providing actionable insights to aid planning and guide targeted treatment.

  • In difficult-to-treat cases, PainVox's radiotracer PV-1 enabled doctors to select new treatments and improve efficacy of therapies.

  • PV-1 also reduced costs by facilitating more precise and effective care providing major reductions in pain.

By illuminating the underlying source of pain, PainVox’s radiotracer technology promises to transition the field from reliance on short-term palliative medications and hit-or-miss procedures to curative solutions that address specific, underlying pain generators. PainVox is generating robust clinical data that will convince healthcare providers to add PainVox’s radiotracer and PET to their imaging orders, leading to paradigm-changing precision in standard chronic pain care pathways.

Precision targeting of sites of origin of pain has the potential to alleviate suffering for patients who have tried multiple other options, improving quality of life as well as clinical and financial outcomes. This represents a breakthrough to address the pain / opioid crisis.

Recent Groundbreaking results in PAIN

Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS also known as RSDS) is a poorly understood chronic pain condition characterized by heterogeneous clinical presentations that make diagnosis and treatment particularly challenging. CRPS implies that structural imaging has failed to find pain generators and the underlying pain mechanisms are unclear.

As a result CRPS continues to lack specifc diagnostic tests and effective therapies while patients suffer for years.

In a recently published study in PAIN, FTC-146 PET identified discrete peripheral pain generators in patients who had failed multiple prior treatments.

  • FTC‑146 PET imaging identified discrete peripheral pain generators in 10 of 15 CRPS subjects, including patients who had suffered for years and failed multiple procedures and medications.​

  • In those with focal hotspots, image‑guided, targeted interventions (eg, nerve blocks, decompressions, focal resections) produced an average 5‑point numerical pain reduction in ~80% of patients, with several experiencing complete or near‑complete relief.​

  • Findings reinforce the target of PV-1/FTC-146 as a biomarker of peripheral sensitization and a potential theranostic bridge to therapeutics.​

  • Study cohort was severely refractory (symptom duration around 4 to 5 years with an average 2 to 3 prior procedures and 3 to 4 medications, so these response magnitudes are unusually strong for this population.​

Case Study - Pain Images Before and After Pain Treatment of High Impact Pain

PV-1 enables objective identification and visualization of painful tissue - not available until now and only possible with PV-1 using PET/MR Imaging. Patients have been successfully treated with treatments indicated by PV-1 precision pain imaging.

Post-treatment, doctors can follow up to confirm patient reports of pain resolution.

Before Surgery:

  • Surgeon was out of options for a patient with 10 out of 10 pain after prior ACL restoration and meniscus removal.

  • PV-1 uptake indicated synovial fibrosis requiring surgical removal.

After Surgery:

  • Substantially reduced PV-1 uptake (at a background level) corresponding to painful tissue removed. 

  • Patient reports complete pain relief & return to normal activity.

Case Study - Diagnostic Imaging of Low-Intensity Pain

Diffuse Pain for Decades

55 year old male with 4/10 chronic pain in right leg from hip to foot. No substantial relief despite decades of seeing specialists, multiple MRIs and X-rays, getting shots, meditation, yoga, and spending months in physical therapy.

A PainVox scan indicated origin of pain in an unexpected location - at the sustentaculum tali in the ankle.

Patient Statement

“The pain radiating from my hip to foot finally had a source location. Knowing the location allowed me to manage my ankle better and get the right care right there. Initially I was surprised when they told me the pain’s location because I didn't report ankle pain. Then I realized that I had had a childhood fall there that for decades I've been compensating for."

Pelvic Pain Imaging

“All five patients showed abnormally increased radioligand uptake on PET compared to healthy controls at various organs, including the uterus, vagina, pelvic bowel, gluteus maximus muscle, and liver. However, on MRI, only 2 patients showed abnormalities that could be potentially associated with the pain symptoms.

For a subset of patients, the association of pain and the abnormally increased radioligand uptake was further validated by successful pain relief outcomes following surgery or trigger point injections to the identified abnormalities. “

Tremendous Unmet Need

The current standard of care for diagnosing pain (MRI, X-rays, CT, ultrasound, EMG, clinical exam, etc) has low sensitivity and poor accuracy, substantially contributing to overly complex pain management and, at times, mismanagement of pain patients: misguided interventions, imprecise or unnecessary surgeries, or systemic medication when a cure or near-cure was otherwise available.

Diagnostic Ligand

PainVox’s radioligand enables accurate detection of the molecular underpinnings of pain specifically pinpoints pro-nociceptive pathology by binding to Sigma-1 Receptors.

A Mission to Partner with Visionaries

PainVox seeks leading researchers and visionary industry leaders to partner with to address the pain crisis. We believe that visualizing pain generators - quantified and objective - will open up new innovation and solutions to address the pain crisis in the US and the world.

Interested in partnering with PainVox? Reach out.

Collaborate with PainVox