The NIH Common Fund Acute to Chronic Pain Signatures (A2CPS) Program announced the first public release of data from its landmark study. A2CPS is a large-scale initiative focused on identifying biological signatures that predict the transition from acute to chronic pain. With this public data release, researchers outside of the program can now access de-identified study data to conduct further investigations and advance pain research.

As part of the A2CPS study, researchers plan to follow more than 2,500 participants for six months after knee replacement or thoracic surgery. They are collecting data from blood samples, brain imaging, functional testing, and patient-reported outcomes before and up to 12 months following surgery. From these data, the A2CPS Consortium will look for differences between people who transition from acute to chronic pain and those who do not. Identifying signatures that predict this transition could accelerate therapy development and inform strategies for pain prevention. 

The A2CPS Consortium is making de-identified data publicly available so researchers can use it to answer additional questions around mitigating pain. This first release contains baseline data from 807 participants before their surgery, including biological and brain imaging data, results of physical tests, and psychological and social assessments. A2CPS has performed over 2,000 MRI brain scans, making it the ninth largest brain-imaging study to date. 

Additional baseline data releases are expected in July 2025 and July 2026. The Consortium will publicly release all data, including pain outcome data, in 2027 after the conclusion of the study. More information, including how researchers can access the data, is available on the A2CPS For Researchers website. By providing user-friendly and publicly accessible data to the scientific community, the A2CPS Program aims to expand opportunities for novel discovery into how we understand and treat chronic pain.