Neuroscience letters
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Neuropathic pain is a significant unmet medical need in patients with variety of injury or disease insults to the nervous system. Neuropathic pain often presents as a painful sensation described as electrical, burning, or tingling. Currently available treatments have limited effectiveness and narrow therapeutic windows for safety. ⋯ Several studies in animal models of neuropathic pain have begun to reveal the functional contribution of dendritic spine dysgenesis in neuropathic pain. Previous reports have demonstrated three primary changes in dendritic spine structure on nociceptive dorsal horn neurons following injury or disease, which accompany chronic intractable pain: (I) increased density of dendritic spines, particularly mature mushroom-spine spines, (II) redistribution of spines toward dendritic branch locations close to the cell body, and (III) enlargement of the spine head diameter, which generally presents as a mushroom-shaped spine. Given the important functional implications of spine distribution, density, and shape for synaptic and neuronal function, the study of dendritic spine abnormality may provide a new perspective for investigating pain, and the identification of specific molecular players that regulate spine morphology may guide the development of more effective and long-lasting therapies.