A parabrachial hub for the prioritization of survival behavior during pain
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ABSTRACT: Long-term sustained pain following acute physical injury is a prominent feature of chronic pain conditions. Populations of neurons that rapidly respond to noxious stimuli or tissue damage have been identified in the spinal cord and several nuclei in the brain. Understanding the central mechanisms that signal ongoing sustained pain, including after tissue healing, remains a challenge. In this study, spatial transcriptomics, neural manipulations, activity recordings and computational modeling demonstrate that activity in an ensemble of anatomically and molecularly diverse parabrachial neurons that express the NPY Y1 receptor is elevated following injury and predicts functional coping behavior. Regardless of the injury type, hunger, thirst, or predator cues suppressed sustained pain by inhibiting PBN Y1R neurons via the release of NPY. Together, our results demonstrate an endogenous analgesic hub at pain-responsive parabrachial Y1R neurons
ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus Homo sapiens
PROVIDER: GSE301435 | GEO | 2025/07/06
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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