To investigate the behavioral and biomolecular similarity between
neuralgia and
depression, a
trigeminal neuralgia (TN)
mouse model was established by
constriction of the infraorbital nerve (CION) to mimic clinical trigeminal
neuropathic pain. A
mouse learned helplessness (LH) model was developed to investigate inescapable
foot-
shock-induced
psychiatric disorders like
depression in
humans.
Mass spectrometry was used to assess changes in the biomolecules and signaling pathways in the
hippocampus from TN or LH
mice. TN
mice developed not only significant
mechanical allodynia but also depressive-like
behaviors (mainly behavioral despair) at 2 weeks after CION,
similar to LH
mice. MS
analysis demonstrated common and distinctive
protein changes in the
hippocampus between groups. Many
protein function
families (such as
cell-to-
cell signaling and interaction, and
cell assembly and
organization,) and signaling pathways (e.g., the
Huntington's disease pathway) were involved in chronic
neuralgia and
depression. Together, these results demonstrated that the LH and TN models both develop depressive-like
behaviors, and revealed the involvement of many
psychiatric disorder-related biomolecules/pathways in the pathogenesis of TN and LH.