• Peter M Grace, Keith A Strand, Erika L Galer, Steven F Maier, and Linda R Watkins.
• Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, and The Center for Neuroscience, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA; Discipline of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia. Electronic address: pgrace@mdanderson.org.
• Brain Res. 2018 Aug 1; 1692: 9-11.

AbstractWe have recently reported that a short course of morphine, starting 10 days after sciatic chronic constriction injury (CCI), prolonged the duration of mechanical allodynia for months after morphine ceased. Maintenance of this morphine-induced persistent sensitization was dependent on microglial reactivity and Toll-like receptor 4 signaling. Given that microRNAs (miRNAs) such as miR-124 and miR-146a possess the ability to modulate such signaling, we directly compared their function in this model. We found that both miRNAs reversed established allodynia in our model of morphine-induced persistent sensitization. The efficacy of miR-124 and miR-146a were comparable, and in both cases allodynia returned within hours to days of miRNA dosing conclusion. Our findings demonstrate that miRNAs targeting Toll-like receptor signaling are effective in reversing neuropathic pain, which underscores the clinical potential of these non-coding RNAs.Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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