Pain
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Anti-nociceptive tolerance to opioids is a well-described phenomenon, which severely limits the clinical efficacy of opioids for the treatment of chronic pain syndromes. The mechanisms that drive anti-nociceptive tolerance, however, are less well understood. We have previously shown that glia have a central role in the development of morphine tolerance and that administration of a glial modulating agent attenuated tolerance formation. ⋯ P2X4 receptor asODN treatment also attenuated the morphine-dependent increase of spinal ionized calcium binding protein (Iba1), glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and mu opioid receptor protein expression. Chronic morphine also decreased perivascular microglial ED2 expression, which was reversed by P2X4 receptor asODN. Together, these data suggest that the modulation of P2X4 receptor expression on microglia and perivascular microglia may prove an attractive target for adjuvant therapy to attenuate opioid-induced anti-nociceptive tolerance.
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The enzyme 3alpha-hydroxysteroid oxido-reductase (3alpha-HSOR) catalyzes the synthesis and bioavailability of 3alpha,5alpha-neurosteroids as allopregnanolone (3alpha,5alpha-THP) which activates GABA(A) receptors and blocks T-type calcium channels involved in pain mechanisms. Here, we used a multidisciplinary approach to demonstrate that 3alpha-HSOR is a cellular target the modulation of which in dorsal root ganglia (DRG) may contribute to suppress pain resulting from peripheral nerve injury. Immunohistochemistry and confocal microscope analyses showed 3alpha-HSOR-immunostaining in naive rat DRG sensory neurons and glial cells. ⋯ Most importantly, in vivo knockdown of 3alpha-HSOR expression in healthy rat DRG using 6-carboxyfluorescein-3alpha-HSOR-siRNA exacerbated thermal and mechanical pain perceptions. This paper is the first to show that siRNA-induced knockdown of a key neurosteroid-synthesizing enzyme directly affects an important function as nociception. Hopefully, these results may be useful for the development of novel analgesics.