Pain
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Glial reactivity in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord is a hallmark in most chronic pain conditions. Neuroinflammation-associated reactive glia, in particular astrocytes, have been shown to exhibit reduced mitochondrial respiratory function. Here, we studied the mitochondrial function at the lumbar spinal cord tissue from complete Freund's adjuvant-induced inflammatory pain rat and chronic constriction injury mouse models by high-resolution respirometry. ⋯ Oral administration of dichloroacetate (DCA) significantly increased mitochondrial respiratory function by inhibiting pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase and decreased glial fibrillary acidic protein and Iba-1 immunoreactivity in spinal cord. Importantly, DCA treatment significantly reduced the ipsilateral pain-related behavior without affecting contralateral sensitivity in both pain models. Our results indicate that mitochondrial metabolic modulation with DCA may offer an alternative therapeutic strategy to alleviate chronic and persistent inflammatory pain.
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Acute pain that persists for a few days is associated with a reduction in patients' quality of life. Orofacial persistent pain promotes psychological disorders such as anxiety, impairs daily essential activities such as eating, and results in decreased social interaction. Here, we investigated whether rats subjected to orofacial formalin injection or intraoral incision surgery display persistent facial heat hyperalgesia, ongoing pain, anxiety-like behavior, and changes in ultrasonic vocalization. ⋯ Moreover, on day 3 after surgery, systemic morphine produced robust conditioned place preference in rats subjected to intraoral incision compared with sham, and the former group also presented increased spontaneous facial grooming, revealing the presence of ongoing pain. Finally, Western blot and immunohistochemistry analysis showed a reduction in tyrosine hydroxylase expression in the nucleus accumbens, which may reflect a decrease in mesolimbic dopaminergic activity. Altogether, the results demonstrate that acute orofacial pain causes prolonged changes in behavioral and affective pain components, which may be related to dopaminergic changes in the nucleus accumbens.
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Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is an aggressive cancer with a poor prognosis. Patients with inoperative PDAC require effective chemotherapy and pain control to increase their quality of life. We investigated whether duloxetine, a serotonin-noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor, improves quality of life in a KPPC (LSL-Kras;Trp53;Pdx1-cre) mouse model of PDAC. ⋯ The migrative/invasive potentials of PDAC were inhibited by duloxetine in vitro. Meanwhile, atipamezole did not inhibit the antitumor effects of duloxetine in vitro and in vivo. Therefore, our results indicate that duloxetine mainly improves cancer-associated pain by enhancement of the noradrenergic pathway rather than the serotonergic pathway, whereas duloxetine modulates antitumor effects on PDAC without involvement of the noradrenergic pathway.