Project description:Neuropathic pain is an apparently spontaneous experience triggered by abnormal physiology of the peripheral or central nervous system, which evolves with time. Neuropathic pain arising from peripheral nerve injury is characterized by a combination of spontaneous pain, hyperalgesia and allodynia. There is no evidence of this type of pain in human infants or rat pups; brachial plexus avulsion, which causes intense neuropathic pain in adults, is not painful when the injury is sustained at birth. Since infants are capable of nociception from before birth and display both acute and chronic inflammatory pain behaviour from an early neonatal age, it appears that the mechanisms underlying neuropathic pain are differentially regulated over a prolonged postnatal period. We used microarrays to detail the global programme of gene expression underlying the differences in nerve injury between along the postnatal development and identified distinct classes of regulated genes during the injury Experiment Overall Design: We have performed a microarray analysis of the rat L4/L5 dorsal root ganglia, 7 days post spared nerve injury, a model of neuropathic pain. Genes that are regulated in adult rats displaying neuropathic behaviour were compared to those regulated in young rats (10 days old) that did not show the same neuropathic behaviour.
Project description:Bone cancer pain (BCP), in which the majority is caused by metastasis from other cancer sites, is the most common type of chronic cancer pain. Bone cancer pain is developed accompanied by changes of numerous genes expression, from peripheral to central nervous system, which may account for this dysfunctional nociceptive perception. Although the pivotal role of lncRNA in neuropathic pain are well acknowledged, the involvement of lncRNA in bone cancer pain development are remain to be clarified. Thus, in the present study we performed transcriptome sequencing to explore changes in expression profiles of lncRNA and mRNA to provide a landscape of dysregulated miRNA in spinal cord of bone cancer pain.
Project description:Neuropathic pain is an apparently spontaneous experience triggered by abnormal physiology of the peripheral or central nervous system, which evolves with time. Neuropathic pain arising from peripheral nerve injury is characterized by a combination of spontaneous pain, hyperalgesia and allodynia. There is no evidence of this type of pain in human infants or rat pups; brachial plexus avulsion, which causes intense neuropathic pain in adults, is not painful when the injury is sustained at birth. Since infants are capable of nociception from before birth and display both acute and chronic inflammatory pain behaviour from an early neonatal age, it appears that the mechanisms underlying neuropathic pain are differentially regulated over a prolonged postnatal period. We used microarrays to detail the global programme of gene expression underlying the differences in nerve injury between along the postnatal development and identified distinct classes of regulated genes during the injury
Project description:Bone cancer pain (BCP), in which the majority is caused by metastasis from other cancer sites, is the most common type of chronic cancer pain. Bone cancer pain is developed accompanied by changes of numerous genes expression, from peripheral to central nervous system, which may account for this dysfunctional nociceptive perception. Although the pivotal role of lncRNA in neuropathic pain are well acknowledged, the involvement of lncRNA in bone cancer pain development are remain to be clarified. Thus, in the present study we performed transcriptome sequencing to explore changes in expression profiles of lncRNA and mRNA to provide a landscape of dysregulated lncRNA and mRNA in spinal cord of bone cancer pain.
Project description:Nociceptive pain implies the activation of the nociceptors without damage to the somatosensory nervous system. Neuropathic pain implies an injury or a disease of the central or peripheral nervous system. Epigenomic may participate in chronic pain conditions as well as in the transition from acute to chronic pain. The purpose of the present study is to analyze how blood methylome differs in both mentionned types of chronic pain, by comparing them together and to controls. The study protocol was approved by the local ethic committee (CCVEM 034/12) and was conducted according to the recommendation of the Declaration of Helsinki. Patients were enrolled at the Clinique romande de réadaptation (CRR) in Sion, in Switzerland. Data were hosted and analyzed at the University of Geneva, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Genetic Medicine and Development, in Switzerland. Data were processed in the high performance computing cluster (HPC) nammed "Baobab" in the Geneva University.
Project description:Sensitization of spinal nociceptive circuits plays a cardinal role in neuropathic pain. This sensitization depends on new gene expression that is primarily regulated via transcriptional and translational control mechanisms. The relative roles of these mechanisms in regulating gene expression in the clinically relevant chronic phase of neuropathic pain are not well understood. Here, we show that changes in gene expression in the spinal cord during the chronic phase of neuropathic pain are substantially regulated at the translational level. Downregulating spinal translation at the chronic phase alleviated pain hypersensitivity. Cell-type-specific profiling revealed that spinal inhibitory neurons exhibited greater changes in translation after peripheral nerve injury compared to excitatory neurons. Notably, increasing translation selectively in all inhibitory neurons or parvalbumin-positive (PV + ) interneurons, but not excitatory neurons, promoted mechanical pain hypersensitivity. Furthermore, increasing translation in PV + neurons decreased their intrinsic excitability and spiking activity, whereas reducing translation in spinal PV + neurons prevented the nerve injury-induced decrease in excitability. Thus, translational control mechanisms in the spinal cord, primarily in inhibitory neurons, play a critical role in mediating neuropathic pain hypersensitivity.
Project description:Pain is a subjective experience derived from complex interactions among biological, environmental, and psychosocial pathways. Sex differences in pain sensitivity and chronic pain prevalence are well established. However, the molecular causes underlying these sex dimorphisms are poorly understood particularly with regard to the role of the peripheral nervous system. Here we sought to identify shared and distinct gene networks functioning in the peripheral nervous systems that may contribute to sex differences of pain after nerve injury. We performed RNA-seq on dorsal root ganglia following chronic constriction injury of the sciatic nerve in male and female rats. Analysis from paired naive and injured tissues showed that 1456 genes were differentially expressed between sexes. Appreciating sex-related gene expression differences and similarities in neuropathic pain models may help to improve the translational relevance to clinical populations and efficacy of clinical trials of this major health issue.
Project description:Histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACIs) interfere with the epigenetic process of histone acetylation and are known to have analgesic properties in models of chronic inflammatory pain. The aim of this study was to determine whether these compounds could also affect neuropathic pain. Different class I HDACIs were delivered intrathecally into rat spinal cord in models of traumatic nerve injury and antiretroviral drug-induced peripheral neuropathy (stavudine, d4T). Mechanical and thermal hypersensitivity was attenuated by 40% to 50% as a result of HDACI treatment, but only if started before any insult. The drugs globally increased histone acetylation in the spinal cord, but appeared to have no measurable effects in relevant dorsal root ganglia in this treatment paradigm, suggesting that any potential mechanism should be sought in the central nervous system. Microarray analysis of dorsal cord RNA revealed the signature of the specific compound used (MS-275) and suggested that its main effect was mediated through HDAC1. Taken together, these data support a role for histone acetylation in the emergence of neuropathic pain. n = 4, HDACi treated vs. vehicle treated. Injured ipsilateral DRG after L5 spinal nerve transection. Spinal cord tissue was run in a separate Affymetrix experiment.
Project description:Histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACIs) interfere with the epigenetic process of histone acetylation and are known to have analgesic properties in models of chronic inflammatory pain. The aim of this study was to determine whether these compounds could also affect neuropathic pain. Different class I HDACIs were delivered intrathecally into rat spinal cord in models of traumatic nerve injury and antiretroviral drug-induced peripheral neuropathy (stavudine, d4T). Mechanical and thermal hypersensitivity was attenuated by 40% to 50% as a result of HDACI treatment, but only if started before any insult. The drugs globally increased histone acetylation in the spinal cord, but appeared to have no measurable effects in relevant dorsal root ganglia in this treatment paradigm, suggesting that any potential mechanism should be sought in the central nervous system. Microarray analysis of dorsal cord RNA revealed the signature of the specific compound used (MS-275) and suggested that its main effect was mediated through HDAC1. Taken together, these data support a role for histone acetylation in the emergence of neuropathic pain. n = 4, HDACi treated vs. vehicle treated. Ipsilateral dorsal spinal cord tissue after L5 spinal nerve transection, DRG tissue was run in a separate Affymetrix experiment.
Project description:Neuropathic pain (NP) is a complex chronic pain due to the nervous system damage or diseases.During NP development and progression, the neuroinflammation has been observed along the pain pathways from the spinal cord to the thalamus and the parietal cortex. It may be caused by the activation of glial cells, especially microglia, with production of cytokines and other inflammatory mediators within the central nervous system (CNS), especially in spinal cord. In this study, we used microarrays to detect the global gene expression in spinal cord of rats in sham group and CCI model group(an animal model of neuropathic pain), and the differentially expressed genes between diseases and control group were obtained.