Articles: neuropathic-pain.
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Low-voltage-activated (T-type) calcium channels are important regulators of the transmission of nociceptive information in the primary afferent pathway and finding ligands that modulate these channels is a key focus of the drug discovery field. Recently, we characterized a set of novel compounds with mixed cannabinoid receptor/T-type channel blocking activity and examined their analgesic effects in animal models of pain. Here, we have built on these previous findings and synthesized a new series of small organic compounds. ⋯ Compound 9 was efficacious in mediating analgesia in mouse models of acute inflammatory pain and in reducing tactile allodynia in the partial nerve ligation model. This compound was shown to be ineffective in Cav3.2 T-type calcium channel null mice at therapeutically relevant concentrations, and it caused no significant motor deficits in open field tests. Taken together, our data reveal a novel class of compounds whose physiological and therapeutic actions are mediated through block of Cav3.2 calcium channels.
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The analgesic properties of antidepressants are often used in the treatment of neuropathy; however their influence on glial cells in maintaining neuropathic pain is unknown. Our studies examined the neuropathic pain-relieving properties after intraperitoneal injection of amitriptyline, doxepin, milnacipran, venlafaxine and fluoxetine 7 days after sciatic nerve injury (CCI) in rats and its influence on microglia/macrophages (IBA-1) and astroglia (GFAP) activation in the spinal cord and dorsal root ganglia (DRG) using Western blot. All tested antidepressants significantly reduced CCI-induced allodynia but hyperalgesia was only antagonised by fluoxetine, doxepine and venlafaxine. ⋯ No changes in the GFAP level in both structures were observed after any of listed above antidepressants administration. Chronic minocycline treatment enhanced amitriptyline and milnacipran, but did not fluoxetine analgesia under neuropathic pain in rats. Our results suggest that nerve injury-induced pain is related with the activation of microglia, which is diminished by fluoxetine treatment in the neuropathic pain model.
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Biological psychiatry · Feb 2015
The anterior cingulate cortex is a critical hub for pain-induced depression.
Besides chronic stress, chronic pain is a prevalent determinant for depression. Changes induced in specific brain regions by sustained pain may alter the processing of affective information, thus resulting in anxiodepressive disorders. Here, we compared the role of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the posterior insular cortex in the anxiodepressive, sensory, and affective aspects of chronic pain. ⋯ Our results show that, at cortical level, the sensory component of chronic pain remains functionally segregated from its affective and anxiodepressive components. Spontaneous tonic pain and evoked allodynia can be experimentally dissociated. Furthermore, the ACC appears as a critical hub for mood disorders, including for the anxiodepressive consequences of chronic pain, and thus constitutes an important target for divulging the underlying mechanism.
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Previous data showed that, in rats, anti-migraine drugs (triptans, olcegepant) significantly reduced mechanical allodynia induced by infraorbital nerve (ION) ligation but not that evoked by sciatic nerve (SN) ligation. Whether this also occurs with MK-8825, a novel anti-migraine drug also acting through CGRP receptor blockade (but chemically unrelated to olcegepant) was tested in the present study, which also investigated possible anti-neuroinflammatory effects of this drug. ⋯ These data further support the idea that CGRP receptor blockade might be a valuable approach to alleviate trigeminal, but not spinal, neuropathic pain through, at least partly, an inhibitory effect on neuropathic pain-associated increase in NO production in trigeminal ganglion.
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Case Reports Multicenter Study
Spinal cord stimulation of the conus medullaris for refractory pudendal neuralgia: a prospective study of 27 consecutive cases.
Thirty percent of patients with pudendal neuralgia due to pudendal nerve entrapment obtain little or no relief from nerve decompression surgery. The objective was to describe the efficacy of spinal cord stimulation of the conus medullaris in patients with refractory pudendal neuralgia. ⋯ Spinal cord stimulation of the conus medullaris is a safe and effective technique for long-term treatment of refractory pudendal neuralgia. Routine use of this technique, which has never been previously reported in the literature in this type of patient, must now be validated by a larger scale study.