Page 13 of 16
Neuropathic pain caused by peripheral nerve injury is a chronic disorder that represents a significant clinical challenge because the pathological mechanisms have not been fully elucidated. Several studies hav...
Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT), an enzyme that metabolizes catecholamines, has recently been implicated in the modulation of pain. Specifically, low COMT activity is associated with heightened pain perceptio...
ATP-sensitive potassium (KATP) channels in neurons regulate excitability, neurotransmitter release and mediate protection from cell-death. Furthermore, activation of KATP channels is suppressed in DRG neurons aft...
Although the systemic administration of cannabinoids produces antinociception, their chronic use leads to analgesic tolerance as well as cross-tolerance to morphine. These effects are mediated by cannabinoids ...
Little is known about whether peripheral nerve injury during the early postnatal period modulates synaptic efficacy in the immature superficial dorsal horn (SDH) of the spinal cord, or whether the neonatal SDH...
Cisplatin has been in use for 40 years for treatment of germ line and other forms of cancer. Oxaliplatin is approved for treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer. Thirty to forty percent of cancer patients re...
Neuropathic pain (NP) is partially mediated by neuroinflammatory mechanisms, and also modulates local neurogenic inflammation. Dietary lipids, in particular the total amount and relative proportions of polyuns...
Nerve injury-triggered hyperexcitability in primary sensory neurons is considered a major source of chronic neuropathic pain. The hyperexcitability, in turn, is thought to be related to transcriptional switchi...
Nerve injury-induced expression of the spinal calcium channel alpha-2-delta-1 subunit (Cavα2δ1) has been shown to mediate behavioral hypersensitivity through a yet identified mechanism. We examined if this neurop...
Transient receptor potential Vanilloid (TRPV) receptors are involved in nociception and are expressed predominantly in sensory neurons. TRPV1, a non-selective cation channel has been extensively studied and is...
The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is a forebrain structure that plays important roles in emotion, learning, memory and persistent pain. Our previous studies have demonstrated that the enhancement of excitato...
Abundantly expressed in pain-sensing neurons, TRPV1, TRPA1 and TRPM8 are major cellular sensors of thermal, chemical and mechanical stimuli. The function of these ion channels has been attributed to their sele...
Glycine receptors (GlyRs) play important roles in regulating hippocampal neural network activity and spinal nociception. Here we show that, in cultured rat hippocampal (HIP) and spinal dorsal horn (SDH) neuron...
Inflammation-mediated hyperalgesia involves tissue acidosis and sensitization of nociceptors. Many studies have reported increased expression of acid-sensing ion channel 3 (ASIC3) in inflammation and enhanced ...
Spinal cord α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid receptors (AMPARs) mediate acute spinal processing of nociceptive and non-nociceptive information, but whether and how their activation contribu...
Adenosine 5'-triphosphate (ATP) has a ubiquitous role in metabolism and a major role in pain responses after tissue injury. We investigated the changes in basal and KCl-evoked ATP release from rat dorsal root ...
The glial glutamate transporter GLT-1 is abundantly expressed in astrocytes and is crucial for glutamate removal from the synaptic cleft. Decreases in glutamate uptake activity and expression of spinal glutama...
Genetic variation contributes to differences in pain sensitivity and response to different analgesics. Catecholamines are involved in the modulation of pain and are partly metabolized by the catechol-O-methylt...
Cytokines such as interleukin 1β (IL-1β) have been implicated in the development of central sensitization that is characteristic of neuropathic pain. To examine its long-term effect on nociceptive processing, ...
The role of the neurotrophin regulated polypeptide, VGF, has been investigated in a rat spared injury model of neuropathic pain. This peptide has been shown to be associated with synaptic strengthening and lea...
The present study aims to investigate the role of transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) in dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons in chronic pain including thermal hyperalgesia and mechanical allodynia....
EphB receptor tyrosine kinases, which play important roles in synaptic connection and plasticity during development and in matured nervous system, have recently been implicated in processing of pain after nerv...
In order to evaluate mechanisms that may underlie the sensitization of trigeminal spinal subnucleus caudalis (Vc; the medullary dorsal horn) and upper cervical spinal cord (C1-C2) nociceptive neurons to heat, ...
Pain is often a dominant clinical feature of chronic pancreatitis but the frequency and severity is highly variable between subjects. We hypothesized that genetic polymorphisms contribute to variations in clin...
Clinical observation and experimental studies have indicated that a single exposure to morphine could induce tolerance and dependence. It has become a concern in clinical antinociceptive practice. However, the...
Pain is a major symptom associated with chronic inflammation. In previous work from our laboratory, we have shown that in animal models of neuropathic pain there is a sprouting of sympathetic fibers into the u...
Recently, increasing evidence has indicated that the primary acupuncture effects are mediated by the central nervous system. However, specific brain networks underpinning these effects remain unclear.
There is evidence to suggest that the midbrain periaqueductal grey (PAG) has a role in migraine and the actions of the anti-migraine drug sumatriptan. In the present study we examined the serotonergic modulati...
With rapid progress in scientific research activities and growing competition for funding resources, it becomes critical to effectively evaluate an individual researcher's annual academic performance, or their...
In a new mouse model for generalized pain syndrome, including fibromyalgia, which used intermittent cold stress (ICS), bilateral allodynia in the hindpaw was observed that lasted more than 12 days; thermal hyp...
Besides functioning as chemosensors for a broad range of endogenous and synthetic ligands, transient receptor potential vanilloid (TRPV) 1–4 channels have also been related to capsaicin (TRPV1), pain, and ther...
Current evidence suggests an analgesic role for the spinal cord action of general anesthetics; however, the cellular population and intracellular mechanisms underlying anti-visceral pain by general anesthetics...
Cutaneous tactile allodynia, or painful hypersensitivity to mechanical stimulation of the skin, is typically associated with neuropathic pain, although also present in chronic pain patients who do not have evi...
Safe and effective treatment for chronic inflammatory and neuropathic pain remains a key unmet medical need for many patients. The recent discovery and description of the transient receptor potential family of...
The effects of an analgesic treatment (lidocaine patches) on brain activity in chronic low back pain (CBP) and in knee osteoarthritis (OA) were investigated using serial fMRI (contrasting fMRI between before a...
Lysophosphatidic acid receptor subtype LPA1 is crucial for the initiation of neuropathic pain and underlying changes, such as up-regulation of Ca2+ channel α2δ-1 subunit in dorsal root ganglia (DRG), up-regulatio...
Postsynaptic density (PSD)-93, a neuronal scaffolding protein, binds to and clusters N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) subunits NR2A and NR2B at cellular membranes in vitro. However, the roles of PSD-93 in sy...
NMDA receptors are important elements in pain signaling in the spinal cord dorsal horn. They are heterotetramers typically composed of two NR1 and two of four NR2 subunits: NR2A-2D. Mice lacking specific NR2 s...
Rodent models of orofacial pain typically use methods adapted from manipulations to hind paw; however, limitations of these models include animal restraint and subjective assessments of behavior by the experim...
The capsaicin receptor, known as transient receptor potential channel vanilloid subtype 1 (TRPV1), is activated by a wide range of noxious stimulants and putative ligands such as capsaicin, heat, pH, anandamid...
Mice lacking the preproenkephalin (ppENK) gene are hyperalgesic and show more anxiety and aggression than wild-type (WT) mice. The marked behavioral changes in ppENK knock-out (KO) mice appeared to occur in supra...
Both presynaptic and postsynaptic alterations are associated with plastic changes of brain circuits, such as learning and memory, drug addiction and chronic pain. However, the dissection of the relative contri...
The effects of GABA, excitatory amino-acid receptors antagonists and a glial metabolism inhibitor on primary-afferent excitation in the spinal dorsal horn were studied by imaging the presynaptic excitation of ...
Altered Na+ channel expression, enhanced excitability, and spontaneous activity occur in nerve-injury and inflammatory models of pathological pain, through poorly understood mechanisms. The cytokine GRO/KC (growt...
Paroxysmal extreme pain disorder (PEPD) is an autosomal dominant painful neuropathy with many, but not all, cases linked to gain-of-function mutations in SCN9A which encodes voltage-gated sodium channel Nav1.7. S...
Altered Cl- homeostasis and GABAergic function are associated with nociceptive input hypersensitivity. This study investigated the role of two major intracellular Cl- regulatory proteins, Na+-K+-Cl- cotransporter...
Regulation of pain states is, in part, dependent upon plastic changes in neurones within the superficial dorsal horn. There is also compelling evidence that pain states are under the control of descending proj...
Expectation is a very potent pain modulator in both humans and animals. There is evidence that pain transmission neurons are modulated by expectation preceding painful stimuli. Nonetheless, few studies have ex...
Neuropathic pain may arise following peripheral nerve injury though the molecular mechanisms associated with this are unclear. We used proteomic profiling to examine changes in protein expression associated wi...
Chloride currents in peripheral nociceptive neurons have been implicated in the generation of afferent nociceptive signals, as Cl- accumulation in sensory endings establishes the driving force for depolarizing, a...