Page 5 of 16
Cancer-associated pain is a major cause of poor quality of life in cancer patients and is frequently resistant to conventional therapy. Recent studies indicate that some hematopoietic growth factors, namely gr...
The sigma-1 receptor (σ1R), an endoplasmic reticulum chaperone protein, is widely distributed and regulates numerous intracellular processes in neurons. Nerve injury alters the structure and function of axotom...
Multiple protein kinases affect the responses of dorsal horn neurons through phosphorylation of synaptic receptors and proteins involved in intracellular signal transduction pathways, and the consequences of t...
Opioids are widely used as the pain reliever and also notorious for being addictive drugs. Sex differences in the opioid analgesia and addiction have been reported and investigated in human subjects and animal...
The metabotropic glutamate receptor 7 (mGluR7) negative allosteric modulator, 6-(4-methoxyphenyl)-5-methyl-3-pyridin-4-ylisoxazolo[4,5-c]pyridin-4(5H)-one (MMPIP), was locally microinjected into the ventrolate...
A fundamental characteristic of neural circuits is the capacity for plasticity in response to experience. Neural plasticity is associated with the development of chronic pain disorders. In this study, we inves...
IL-6 is a typical injury-induced mediator. Together with its receptors, IL-6 contributes to both induction and maintenance of neuropathic pain deriving from changes in activity of primary sensory neurons in do...
Pain, including arthritic pain, has a negative affective component and is often associated with anxiety and depression. However, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressants (SSRIs) show limited effe...
CRPS is a painful, debilitating, and often-chronic condition characterized by various sensory, motor, and vascular disturbances. Despite many years of study, current treatments are limited by our understanding...
NaV1.7 is preferentially expressed, at relatively high levels, in peripheral neurons, and is often referred to as a “peripheral” sodium channel, and NaV1.7-specific blockers are under study as potential pain ther...
It has been demonstrated that angiotensin II (Ang II) participates in either the inhibition or the facilitation of nociceptive transmission depending on the brain area. Neuronal Ang II is locally synthesized n...
We have previously shown a sprouting of sympathetic fibers into the upper dermis of the skin following subcutaneous injection of complete Freund’s adjuvant (CFA) into the hindpaw. This sprouting correlated wit...
The Erratum to this article has been published in Molecular Pain 2013 9:55
There is considerable interest in inducing RNA interference (RNAi) in neurons to study gene function and identify new targets for disease intervention. Although short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) have been used t...
Clinical studies indicate that patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) frequently share comorbidity with numerous chronic pain conditions. However, the sustained effects of PTSD-like stress over ti...
Bilateral sagittal split ramus osteotomy (BSSRO) is a common orthognatic surgical procedure. Sensory disturbances in the inferior alveolar nerve, including hypoesthesia and dysesthesia, are frequently observed...
Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has shown promise in the alleviation of acute and chronic pain by altering the activity of cortical areas involved in pain sensation. However, current single...
The Erratum to this article has been published in Molecular Pain 2014 10:16
Cannabinoid receptors and T-type calcium channels are potential targets for treating pain. Here we report on the design, synthesis and analgesic properties of a new mixed cannabinoid/T-type channel ligand, NMP...
Amitriptyline (AMI) is tricyclic antidepressant that has been widely used to manage various chronic pains such as migraines. Its efficacy is attributed to its blockade of voltage-gated sodium channels (VGSCs)....
This review aims to create an overview of the currently available results of site-directed mutagenesis studies on transient receptor potential vanilloid type 1 (TRPV1) receptor. Systematization of the vast num...
We previously reported that nerve injury-induced neuropathic pain is initiated by newly produced lysophosphatidic acid (LPA).
Both spinal and trigeminal somatosensory systems use the TRPM8 channel as a principal transducer for detecting cold stimuli. It is currently unclear whether this cold transducer may play a role in trigeminal n...
Extracellular acidosis is a prominent feature of multiple pathological conditions, correlating with pain sensation. Acid-sensing ion channels (ASICs), a family of proton-gated cation channels, are distributed ...
Although a number of clinical and preclinical studies have demonstrated analgesic effects of cannabinoid treatments, there are also instances when cannabinoids have had no effect or even exacerbated pain. The ...
The quantification of pain intensity in vivo is essential for identifying the mechanisms of various types of pain or for evaluating the effects of different analgesics. A variety of behavioral tests for pain meas...
Odontoblasts are specialized cells that form dentin and they are believed to be sensors for tooth pain. Transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1), a pro-inflammatory cytokine expressed early in odontoblasts, play...
An inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate binding protein, comprising 2 isoforms termed PRIP-1 and PRIP-2, was identified as a novel modulator for GABAA receptor trafficking. It has been reported that naive PRIP-1 knockout...
Noxious stimulation and nerve injury induce an increase in intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) via various receptors or ionic channels. While an increase in [Ca2+]i excites neurons, [Ca2+]i overload elicit...
Peripheral nerve injury can have long-term consequences including pain-related manifestations, such as hypersensitivity to cutaneous stimuli, as well as affective and cognitive disturbances, suggesting the inv...
Pain tolerance is subject to considerable inter-individual variation, which may be influenced by a number of genetic and non-genetic factors. The mu, delta and kappa opioid receptors play a role in pain percep...
Preoperative pain, type of operation and anesthesia, severity of acute postoperative pain, and psychosocial factors have been identified as risk factors for chronic postsurgical pain (CPP). Recently, it has be...
Electroacupuncture (EA) is effective in relieving pain in patients with postherpetic neuralgia (PHN). However, the mechanism underlying the therapeutic effect of EA in PHN is still unclear. Systemic injection ...
Chronic low back pain is a major cause of disability and health care costs. Current treatments are inadequate for many patients. A number of preclinical models have been developed that attempt to mimic aspects...
Proinflammatory cytokine interleukin-1β (IL-1β) released from spinal microglia plays an important role in the maintenance of acute and chronic pain states. However, the cellular basis of this action remains po...
Visceral pain is common symptom involved in many gastrointestinal disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease. The underlying molecular mechanisms remain elusive. We investigated the molecular mechanisms and ...
Peripheral nerve injury (PNI) results in a fundamental reorganization of the translational machinery in the injured peripheral nerve such that protein synthesis is increased in a manner linked to enhanced mTOR...
Previous studies have demonstrated that p38 MAPK signal transduction pathway plays an important role in the development and maintenance of inflammatory pain. Electroacupuncture (EA) can suppress the inflammato...
The editors of Molecular Pain would like to thank all the reviewers who have contributed to the journal in Volume 8 (2012).
Chronic pain is an important medical problem affecting hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Mechanisms underlying the maintenance of chronic pain states are poorly understood but the elucidation of such m...
Acute opioid tolerance (AOT) and opioid-induced hyperalgesia (OIH) are undesirable effects of opioids that have been reported in both animals and humans. However, the development of AOT and OIH in cases of pot...
Mechanisms underlying postoperative pain remain poorly understood. In rodents, skin-only incisions induce mechanical and heat hypersensitivity similar to levels observed with skin plus deep incisions. Therefor...
Opioid receptors regulate a diverse array of physiological functions. Mu opioid receptor agonists are well-known analgesics for treating acute pain. In contrast, animal models suggest that chronic pain is more...
Cadmium (Cd) is an environmental pollutant and acute exposure to it causes symptoms related to pain and inflammation in the airway and gastrointestinal tract, but the underlying mechanisms are still unclear. T...
Chronic pain remains a significant clinical problem despite substantial advances in our understanding of how persistent nociceptor stimulation drives plasticity in the CNS. A major theme that has emerged in th...
GTP cyclohydrolase 1 (GTP-CH1), the rate-limiting enzyme in the synthesis of tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4), encoded by the GCH1 gene, has been implicated in the development and maintenance of inflammatory pain in rat...
Hydrogen sulfide (H2S), an endogenous gaseotransmitter/modulator, is becoming appreciated that it may be involved in a wide variety of processes including inflammation and nociception. However, the role and mecha...
Resveratrol (3,5,4’ - trihydroxy-trans-stilbene), a widely distributed natural stilbenoid, was proposed to account for the unique effects of red wine on life span and health. It has been reported to possess va...
Corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) plays an important role in affective states and disorders. CRF is not only a “stress hormone” but also a neuromodulator outside the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (H...
The TRPV1 ion channel is expressed in nociceptors, where pharmacological modulation of its function may offer a means of alleviating pain and neurogenic inflammation processes in the human body. The aim of thi...
CREB has been reported to be activated by injury and is commonly used as marker for pain-related plasticity changes in somatosensory pathways, including spinal dorsal horn neurons and the anterior cingulate co...
Our previous studies have indicated that both lumbar spinal cord-infiltrating CD4+ T cells and microglial CD40 contribute to the maintenance of mechanical hypersensitivity in a murine model of neuropathic pain sp...