ABSTRACT
Neuropathic pain (NP) has become a serious global health issue and a huge clinical challenge without available effective treatment. P2 receptors family is involved in pain transmission and represents a promising target for pharmacological intervention. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) contains multiple components which are effective in targeting different pathological mechanisms involved in NP. Different from traditional analgesics, which target a single pathway, TCMs take the advantage of multiple components and multiple targets, and can significantly improve the efficacy of treatment and contribute to the prediction of the risks of NP. Compounds of TCM acting at nucleotide P2 receptors in neurons and glial cells could be considered as a potential research direction for moderating neuropathic pain. This review summarized the recently published data and highlighted several TCMs that relieved NP by acting at P2 receptors.
ABSTRACT
Human immunodeficiency virus(HIV) infection may result in serious impairment of the immune system in HIV-posi-tive patients. Both HIV productions and highly active antiretrovi-ral therapy (HAART) drugs can cause neuropathy, including the HIV associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) and the peripheral neuropathy. Several animal models have been devel-oped in an attempt to study the mechanisms of HIV relative neu-ropathies. This review focuses on researching HIV-1 associated neuropathies by application of HIV-1 animal models.
ABSTRACT
Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is a kind of recurrent transient and severe pain that is limited to the trigeminal nerve in one or more branches. The clinical incidence of TN is high, which seriously affects the quality of life of the patients and is difficult to cure. The present study investigated the effects of tetramethylpyrazine (TMP) on TN induced by chronic constriction injury of the infraorbital nerve (ION-CCI) in rats. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly assigned to four groups: sham, sham treated with TMP (Sham+TMP), TN model (TN), and TN treated with TMP (TN+TMP). The rat TN model was established by ION-CCI and TMP (50 mg/kg) was injected intraperitoneally once a day for 2 weeks after operation. The mechanical response threshold was tested by the electronic von Frey filaments. The expression of CGRP in the trigeminal ganglia (TGs) of rats on the operative side was detected by RT-PCR, immunohistochemical staining and Western blot. In 15 days after operation, TN group showed a robust decrease in mechanical response threshold as compared with sham group. From day 9 to day 15 after operation, TMP treatment significantly suppressed the TN-induced mechanical hyperalgesia (P < 0.05). On day 15 after operation, RT-PCR, immunohistochemical staining and Western blot analysis showed an obvious increase in expression level of CGRP in TGs of TN group compared with sham group, which was downregulated by TMP treatment (P < 0.05). These results suggested that TMP might have a therapeutic potential for the treatment of TN through regulating CGRP expression in the TGs.
Subject(s)
Animals , Male , Rats , Constriction , Hyperalgesia , Drug Therapy , Pyrazines , Pharmacology , Random Allocation , Rats, Sprague-Dawley , Trigeminal Ganglion , Trigeminal Neuralgia , Drug TherapyABSTRACT
P2X7 receptor is a member of ATP-gated non-selective cation channels. P2X7 receptor is widely distributed in vivo, and its expression is always observed to be up-regulated in the pathological inflammatory circumstances. P2X7 receptor has an unusual property of forming membrane pore during prolonged agonist exposure or high concentrations of agonist activation, different from other members of P2X receptors (P2X1-6). Because of this property, P2X7 receptor has been implicated in inflammatory cytokine release, and is closely related to inflammatory diseases. With the wide application of the P2X7-knockout animal model and specific P2X7 receptor antagonists in inflammatory disease research, P2X7 receptor is emerging as a new target for the treatment of inflammatory diseases. This article will review the recent progress regarding the effect of P2X7 receptor on inflammatory diseases and its mechanism.