Neuroscience
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Opioids and receptor antagonists of excitatory amino acids attenuate mechanical allodynia and thermal hyperalgesia in animal models of neuropathic pain. Recently, a kainate receptor antagonist, 2S,4R-4-methylglutamate, has been developed but has not been tested for antinociceptive effects in animal models of neuropathic pain. We evaluated whether 2S,4R-4-methylglutamate attenuated responses to mechanical and thermal stimuli in uninjured (control) rats and increased responsiveness in rats with chronic constriction injury. ⋯ At four to eight days following chronic constriction injury, animals that displayed increased responsiveness to mechanical and thermal stimuli were injected intraperitoneally with either dizocilpine maleate (0.1 mg/kg), morphine (4 mg/kg), vehicle as controls, or 2S,4R-4-methylglutamate (25, 50, 75 or 100 mg/kg). 2S,4R-4-Methylglutamate (25, 50, 75 and 100 mg/kg) significantly attenuated the frequency of responses to mechanical stimuli (Wilcoxon, P < 0.05) and the latency of responses to thermal stimuli (analysis of variance and Duncan's, P < 0.05). Dizocilpine maleate and morphine, as expected, also reduced these responses. These results suggest that, in addition to opioid and N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors, kainate receptors may play a role in the maintenance of mechanical allodynia and thermal hyperalgesia associated with peripheral nerve injury.
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Inflammation of peripheral tissues evokes spontaneous pain and an increased responsiveness to external stimuli known as hyperalgesia, produced by both peripheral and central changes. The central component is initiated by a sustained afferent barrage produced by sensitized peripheral nociceptors, but it is unclear to which extent ongoing nociceptive input is required to maintain these central changes. Here, we have used an isolated preparation of the spinal cord in vitro obtained from eight- to 12-day-old rats to examine spinal plasticity in the absence of naturally occurring afferent inputs. ⋯ In contrast, maximal behavioural hyperalgesia was observed by 3 h post-carrageenan, and thermal hyperalgesia had resolved by 20 h, although mechanical hyperalgesia remained. These results show that the induction of spinal plasticity independent of peripheral input is a progressive process with a slow time-course, since significant hyperreflexia in the isolated spinal preparation appears 6 h after inflammation and develops further within 20 h. We conclude that during the first 3 h following inflammation, hyperalgesia is the result of peripheral sensitization and of central mechanisms that depend on an ongoing peripheral input and thus changes were not observed in the isolated spinal cord.
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Repeated dopamine agonist administration to rats with unilateral 6-hydroxydopamine lesions of the nigrostriatal pathway potentiates behavioral and neuronal activation in response to subsequent dopamine agonist treatment. This response sensitization has been termed "priming" or "reverse-tolerance". Our prior work has shown that three pretreatment injections of the mixed D1/D2 agonist apomorphine (0.5 mg/kg) into 6-hydroxydopamine-lesioned rats permits a previously inactive dose of the D2 agonist quinpirole (0.25 mg/kg) to induce robust contralateral rotation and striatal Fos expression in striatoentopeduncular "direct" pathway neurons. ⋯ These responses are equivalent to the changes observed in apomorphine-primed 6-hydroxydopamine-lesioned rats challenged with D2 agonist. In contrast, D2 agonist priming was not associated with D2-mediated induction of striatal immediate-early gene expression even though priming of D2-mediated rotational behavior was not different from that observed following priming with apomorphine or D1 agonist. Therefore, while priming-induced alterations in D2-mediated immediate early gene expression in the "direct" striatal output pathway may contribute to the enhanced motor behavior observed, such changes in striatal gene expression do not appear to be required for this potentiated motor response in dopamine-depleted rats.
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There appear to be different relationships between mu-opioid receptor densities and the acute and neuroadaptive mu-opioid agonist-induced responses of the multiple opioid neuronal systems, including important pons/medulla circuits. The recent success in creating mu-opioid receptor knockout mice allows studies of mu-opioid agonist-induced pharmacological and physiological effects in animals that express no, one or two copies of the mu-opioid receptor gene. We now report that the binding of mu-opioid receptor ligand, [3H][D-Ala2,NHPhe4,Gly-ol]enkephalin to membrane preparations of the pons/medulla was reduced by half in heterozygous mu-opioid receptor knockout mice and eliminated in homozygous mu-opioid receptor knockout mice. ⋯ These antinociceptive actions were significantly reduced in heterozygous mu-opioid receptor knockout mice, and virtually abolished in homozygous knockout mice. The mu-opioid receptors are the principal molecular targets for endomorphin-induced G-protein activation in the pons/medulla and the antinociception caused by the intracerebroventricular administration of mu-opioid agonists. These data support the notion that there are limited physiological mu-opioid receptor reserves for inducing G-protein activation in the pons/medulla and for the nociceptive modulation induced by the central administration of endomorphin-1 and -2.
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Although the distribution of calcitonin gene-related peptide has been extensively studied in the spinal cord, little is known about the precise subcellular localization of receptors for calcitonin gene-related peptide. The present study was undertaken to localize calcitonin gene-related peptide receptors in both the dorsal and ventral horns of the rat spinal cord. Immunocytochemical localization with specific monoclonal antibodies was performed at the light and electron microscopic levels. ⋯ Motoneurons, on the other hand, were contacted by axonal terminals with presynaptic calcitonin gene-related peptide receptors. These data suggest that (i) dorsal horn neurons are capable of direct primary afferent, calcitonin gene-related peptide receptor-mediated interactions and (ii) neuronal terminals contacting motor horn cells can be influenced through presynaptic paracrine-like calcitonin gene-related peptide receptor-mediated interactions. Thus, calcitonin gene-related peptide can have multiple modulatory effects on spinal cord neurons through site-specific receptors.