The International journal of neuroscience
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One of the biggest challenges for discovering more efficacious drugs for the control of neuropathic pain has been the diversity of chronic pain states in humans. It is now acceptable that different mechanisms contribute to normal physiologic pain, pain arising from tissue damage and pain arising from injury to the nervous system. To study pain transmission, spot novel pain targets and characterize the potential analgesic profile of new chemical entities, numerous experimental animal pain models have been developed that attempt to simulate the many human pain conditions. ⋯ Each surgical model has its own benefits and limitations. It is very difficult for a researcher to choose a suitable surgical animal model to suit their experimental set-up. Therefore, particular attention has been given in this review to comparatively provide the pros and cons of each model of surgically induced neuropathic pain.
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In the present article, we report on the case of a 23-year-old woman with a history of treatment-resistant depression who achieved significant symptom improvement with a novel treatment consisting of ketamine, a dissociative anesthetic, and external neuromodulation with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). This case highlights the need for further investigation of treatments pairing external neuromodulation with dissociative anesthetics.
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Ketamine is widely used in pediatric anesthesia. Recent studies have demonstrated that excessive application of ketamine leads to cortical neurodegeneration in neonatal brains. The present study aims to characterize the functional role of neuronal microRNA, miR-124, in regulating ketamine-induced neurotoxicity in mouse hippocampus. ⋯ Our study demonstrated that miR-124 played an important role in regulating ketamine-induced hippocampal neurodegeneration. Inhibiting miR-124 may provide a molecular target to improve memory performance in both human and animals suffering from overanesthetizing-related neurotoxicity.