The attention of investigators interested in pain and analgesia has been increasingly directed beyond acute pain mechanisms towards processes that give rise to persistent pain states. There is now clear functional evidence that brainstem modulatory systems contribute to persistent pain associated with nerve injury and inflammation. The best characterized modulatory system has important links in the midbrain periaqueductal gray and rostral ventromedial medulla (RVM), and is recruited to enhance or inhibit nociception under different conditions. The present proposal focuses on the RVM. Over the last ten years, my laboratory has demonstrated that pain-inhibiting and pain- facilitating influences from the RVM are mediated by two classes of neurons, """"""""ON-cells,"""""""" which exert a net facilitating influence on nociception, and """"""""OFF-cells,"""""""" which have a net inhibitory action. The overarching goal of this proposal is to understand how activity- dependent changes in the properties and relationships of these neurons contribute to abnormal pain following nerve injury, and during chronic inflammation. Using a combination of single-cell recording and behavioral pharmacology, the proposed experiments will test whether changes in the mechanical thresholds of ON- and OFF-cells in nerve-injured animals are important for behavioral hypersensitivity, contrast changes in RVM neurons during chronic inflammation with those seen following nerve injury, and identify drivers of ON-cell activation in both models. A better understanding of molecular, cellular, and circuit-level mechanisms underlying chronic pain is essential if we are to develop better treatments for patients. There is now increasing evidence that pathological pain states are at least in part driven by changes in the brain itself. Descending modulatory pathways are known to mediate top-down regulation of nociceptive processing, transmitting cortical and limbic influences to the dorsal horn. These pathways are also intimately intertwined with ascending transmission through positive and negative feedback loops. Models of persistent pain that fail to include descending modulatory pathways are thus necessarily incomplete. By examining how the properties of known nociceptive modulatory neurons are transformed during the transition from acute to chronic pain, the present studies fill an important gap in our knowledge.

Public Health Relevance

We now understand that the brain actively controls our sensitivity to painful inputs. An imbalance in the brain's modulatory systems so that pain transmission is favored can therefore be important in chronic pain states. The work proposed in this application will study the properties of pain-modulating neurons in the brainstem to determine how they are altered to support chronic pain.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01NS066159-04
Application #
8464813
Study Section
Somatosensory and Chemosensory Systems Study Section (SCS)
Program Officer
Babcock, Debra J
Project Start
2010-05-01
Project End
2014-04-30
Budget Start
2013-05-01
Budget End
2014-04-30
Support Year
4
Fiscal Year
2013
Total Cost
$314,456
Indirect Cost
$107,584
Name
Oregon Health and Science University
Department
Neurosurgery
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
096997515
City
Portland
State
OR
Country
United States
Zip Code
97239
Chen, QiLiang; Roeder, Zachary; Li, Ming-Hua et al. (2017) Optogenetic Evidence for a Direct Circuit Linking Nociceptive Transmission through the Parabrachial Complex with Pain-Modulating Neurons of the Rostral Ventromedial Medulla (RVM). eNeuro 4:
Smith, Monique L; Walcott, Andre T; Heinricher, Mary M et al. (2017) Anterior Cingulate Cortex Contributes to Alcohol Withdrawal- Induced and Socially Transferred Hyperalgesia. eNeuro 4:
Smith, Monique L; Hostetler, Caroline M; Heinricher, Mary M et al. (2016) Social transfer of pain in mice. Sci Adv 2:e1600855
Maire, J J; Close, L N; Heinricher, M M et al. (2016) Distinct pathways for norepinephrine- and opioid-triggered antinociception from the amygdala. Eur J Pain 20:206-14
Heinricher, Mary M (2016) Pain Modulation and the Transition from Acute to Chronic Pain. Adv Exp Med Biol 904:105-15
Roeder, Zachary; Chen, QiLiang; Davis, Sophia et al. (2016) Parabrachial complex links pain transmission to descending pain modulation. Pain 157:2697-2708
Cleary, D R; Roeder, Z; Elkhatib, R et al. (2014) Neuropeptide Y in the rostral ventromedial medulla reverses inflammatory and nerve injury hyperalgesia in rats via non-selective excitation of local neurons. Neuroscience 271:149-59
Cleary, Daniel R; Heinricher, Mary M (2013) Adaptations in responsiveness of brainstem pain-modulating neurons in acute compared with chronic inflammation. Pain 154:845-55
Wagner, K M; Roeder, Z; Desrochers, K et al. (2013) The dorsomedial hypothalamus mediates stress-induced hyperalgesia and is the source of the pronociceptive peptide cholecystokinin in the rostral ventromedial medulla. Neuroscience 238:29-38
Cleary, Daniel R; Raslan, Ahmed M; Rubin, Jonathan E et al. (2013) Deep brain stimulation entrains local neuronal firing in human globus pallidus internus. J Neurophysiol 109:978-87

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