• Eur. J. Neurosci. · Feb 2014

    The upstream Variable Number Tandem Repeat polymorphism of the monoamine oxidase type A gene influences trigeminal pain-related evoked responses.

    • Cherubino Di Lorenzo, Andrea Daverio, Patrizio Pasqualetti, Gianluca Coppola, Ioannis Giannoudas, Ylenia Barone, Gaetano S Grieco, Cinzia Niolu, Esterina Pascale, Filippo M Santorelli, Ferdinando Nicoletti, Francesco Pierelli, Alberto Siracusano, Stefano Seri, and Giorgio Di Lorenzo.
    • Don Carlo Gnocchi Onlus Foundation, Via Maresciallo Caviglia, 30-00135, Rome, Italy.
    • Eur. J. Neurosci. 2014 Feb 1;39(3):501-7.

    AbstractMonoamines have an important role in neural plasticity, a key factor in cortical pain processing that promotes changes in neuronal network connectivity. Monoamine oxidase type A (MAOA) is an enzyme that, due to its modulating role in monoaminergic activity, could play a role in cortical pain processing. The X-linked MAOA gene is characterized by an allelic variant of length, the MAOA upstream Variable Number Tandem Repeat (MAOA-uVNTR) region polymorphism. Two allelic variants of this gene are known, the high-activity MAOA (HAM) and low-activity MAOA (LAM). We investigated the role of MAOA-uVNTR in cortical pain processing in a group of healthy individuals measured by the trigeminal electric pain-related evoked potential (tPREP) elicited by repeated painful stimulation. A group of healthy volunteers was genotyped to detect MAOA-uVNTR polymorphism. Electrical tPREPs were recorded by stimulating the right supraorbital nerve with a concentric electrode. The N2 and P2 component amplitude and latency as well as the N2-P2 inter-peak amplitude were measured. The recording was divided into three blocks, each containing 10 consecutive stimuli and the N2-P2 amplitude was compared between blocks. Of the 67 volunteers, 37 were HAM and 30 were LAM. HAM subjects differed from LAM subjects in terms of amplitude of the grand-averaged and first-block N2-P2 responses (HAM>LAM). The N2-P2 amplitude decreased between the first and third block in HAM subjects but not LAM subjects. The MAOA-uVNTR polymorphism seemed to influence the brain response in a repeated tPREP paradigm and suggested a role of the MAOA as a modulator of neural plasticity related to cortical pain processing.© 2014 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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