European journal of pharmacology
-
Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a risk factor for Parkinson's disease (PD). Therefore, treatment to improve insulin resistance in T2DM may be useful for PD patients. Glucose dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) is a member of the incretin hormone family that can promote insulin release and improve insulin resistance. ⋯ Moreover, D-Ala2-GIP-glu-PAL also inhibited the increased levels of expression of α-synuclein in the SNpc and striatum induced by MPTP. Furthermore, drug treatment reduced chronic neuroinflammation, oxidative stress and lipid peroxidation, and increased the expression of BDNF. These findings show that GIP signaling is neuroprotective and holds promise as a novel treatment of PD.
-
Chronic pain is broadly classified into somatic, visceral or neuropathic pain depending upon the location and extent of pain perception. Evidences from different animal studies suggest that inflammatory or neuropathic pain is associated with altered acetylation and deacetylation of histone proteins, which result in abnormal transcription of nociceptive processing genes. There have been a number of studies indicating that nerve injury up-regulates histone deacetylase enzymes, which leads to increased histone deacetylation and induce chronic pain. ⋯ On the other hand, a few studies refer to increased expression of histone acetylase enzymes in response to nerve injury that promotes histone acetylation leading to pain induction. Treatment with histone acetyl transferase inhibitors have been reported to relieve chronic pain by blocking the up-regulation of chemokines and cyclooxygenase-2, the critical factors associated with histone acetylation-induced pain. The present review describes the dual role of histone acetylation/deacetylation in development or attenuation of neuropathic pain along with the underlying mechanisms.
-
Caveolae, lipid enriched invaginations of the plasma membrane, are epicentres of cellular signal transduction. The structural proteins of caveolae, caveolins, regulate effector pathways in anaesthetic-induced cardioprotection, including the RISK pathway. Helium (He) postconditioning (HePoc) is known to mimic anaesthetic conditioning and to prevent damage from myocardial infarction. ⋯ I/R15) was elevated in the cytosolic fraction of I/R+He15. These results suggest that 15min of HePoc regulates Cav-1 and Cav-3 and activates RISK pathway kinases ERK1/2 and AKT. These processes might be crucially involved in HePoc mediated cardioprotection.
-
R-isovaline is a non-proteinogenic amino acid which produces analgesia in a range of nociceptive assays. Mediation of this effect by metabotropic receptors for γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glutamate, demonstrated by previous work, may depend on the type of tissue or receptor system. The objective of this study was to assess the activity of R-isovaline acting at GABAB and group II metabotropic glutamate receptors in guinea pig ileum, which is known to exhibit well-defined responses to GABAB agonists such as baclofen. ⋯ R-isovaline differed significantly from RS-baclofen in its actions in the guinea pig ileum, indicated in particular by the finding that CGP52432 blocked only the effects of RS-baclofen. The ileal tissue did not respond to a group II metabotropic glutamate receptor agonist, previously shown to co-mediate R-isovaline analgesia. These findings raise the possibility of a novel therapeutic target at unknown receptors for R-isovaline-like compounds in the guinea pig ileum.
-
Botulinum neurotoxin serotype A (BoNT/A) shows antinociceptive properties, and its clinical applications in pain therapy are continuously increasing. BoNT/A specifically cleaves SNAP-25, which results in the formation of a non-functional SNARE complex, thereby potently inhibiting the release of neurotransmitters and neuropeptides, including those involved in nociception. The aim of the present study was to determine the effects of BoNT/A (300pg/paw) on pain-related behavior and the levels of glial markers and interleukins in the spinal cord and dorsal root ganglia (DRG) after chronic constriction injury (CCI) to the sciatic nerve in rats. ⋯ Western blotting results suggested that CCI induces the upregulation of the pronociceptive proteins IL-18, IL-6 and IL-1β in the ipsilateral lumbar spinal cord and DRG, but no changes in the levels of the antinociceptive proteins IL-18BP, IL-1RA and IL-10 were observed. Interestingly, BoNT/A injection suppressed the CCI-induced upregulation of IL-18 and IL-1β in the spinal cord and/or DRG and increased the levels of IL-10 and IL-1RA in the DRG. In summary, our results suggest that BoNT/A significantly attenuates pain-related behavior and microglial activation and restores the neuroimmune balance in a CCI model by decreasing the levels of pronociceptive factors (IL-1β and IL-18) and increasing the levels of antinociceptive factors (IL-10 and IL-1RA) in the spinal cord and DRG.