scholarly journals Animal Models of Peripheral Pain: Biology Review and Application for Drug Discovery

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 202-219
Author(s):  
Saravanan Kaliyaperumal ◽  
Kristin Wilson ◽  
Famke Aeffner ◽  
Charles Dean

Pain is a complex constellation of cognitive, unpleasant sensory, and emotional experiences that primarily serves as a survival mechanism. Pain arises in the peripheral nervous system and pain signals synapse with nerve tracts extending into the central nervous system. Several different schemes are used to classify pain, including the underlying mechanism, tissues primarily affected, and time-course. Numerous animal models of pain, which should be employed with appropriate Institutional Animal Care and Use approvals, have been developed to elucidate pathophysiology mechanisms and aid in identification of novel therapeutic targets. The variety of available models underscores the observations that pain phenotypes are driven by several distinct mechanisms. Pain outcome measurement encompasses both reflexive (responses to heat, cold, mechanical and electrical stimuli) and nonreflexive (spontaneous pain responses to stimuli) behaviors. However, the question of translatability to human pain conditions and potential treatment outcomes remains a topic of continued scrutiny. In this review we discuss the different types of pain and their mechanisms and pathways, available rodent pain models with an emphasis on type of pain stimulations and pain outcome measures and discuss the role of pathologists in assessing and validating pain models.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bashaer Abu Khatir ◽  
Gordon Omar Davis ◽  
Mariam Sameem ◽  
Rutu Patel ◽  
Jackie Fong ◽  
...  

Tuberin is a member of a large protein complex, Tuberous Sclerosis Complex, and acts as a sensor for nutrient status regulating protein synthesis and cell cycle progression. Mutations in the Tuberin gene, TSC2, lead to the formation of tumors and developmental defects in many organ systems, including the central nervous system. Tuberin is expressed in the brain throughout development and levels of Tuberin have been found to decrease during neuronal differentiation in cell lines in vitro. Our current work investigates the levels of Tuberin at two stages of embryonic development in vivo, and we study the mRNA and protein levels during a time course using immortalized cell lines in vitro. Our results show that Tuberin levels remain stable in the olfactory bulb but decrease in the Purkinje cell layer during embryonic mouse brain development. We show here that Tuberin levels are higher when cells are cultured as neurospheres, and knockdown of Tuberin results in a reduction in the number of neurospheres. These data provide support for the hypothesis that Tuberin is an important regulator of stemness and the reduction of Tuberin levels might support functional differentiation in the central nervous system. Understanding how Tuberin expression is regulated throughout neural development is essential to fully comprehend the role of this protein in several developmental and neural pathologies.


Cornea ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (11) ◽  
pp. 1408-1414 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Xiang ◽  
Wenchang Zhou ◽  
Ping Wang ◽  
Hui Yang ◽  
Feng Gao ◽  
...  

F1000Research ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evandro R. Winkelmann ◽  
Huanle Luo ◽  
Tian Wang

West Nile virus (WNV), a neurotropic single-stranded flavivirus has been the leading cause of arboviral encephalitis worldwide.  Up to 50% of WNV convalescent patients in the United States were reported to have long-term neurological sequelae.  Neither antiviral drugs nor vaccines are available for humans.  Animal models have been used to investigate WNV pathogenesis and host immune response in humans.  In this review, we will discuss recent findings from studies in animal models of WNV infection, and provide new insights on WNV pathogenesis and WNV-induced host immunity in the central nervous system.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfger von der Behrens

Tinnitus is one of the major audiological diseases, affecting a significant portion of the ageing society. Despite its huge personal and presumed economic impact there are only limited therapeutic options available. The reason for this deficiency lies in the very nature of the disease as it is deeply connected to elementary plasticity of auditory processing in the central nervous system. Understanding these mechanisms is essential for developing a therapy that reverses the plastic changes underlying the pathogenesis of tinnitus. This requires experiments that address individual neurons and small networks, something usually not feasible in human patients. However, in animals such invasive experiments on the level of single neurons with high spatial and temporal resolution are possible. Therefore, animal models are a very critical element in the combined efforts for engineering new therapies. This review provides an overview over the most important features of animal models of tinnitus: which laboratory species are suitable, how to induce tinnitus, and how to characterize the perceived tinnitus by behavioral means. In particular, these aspects of tinnitus animal models are discussed in the light of transferability to the human patients.


2009 ◽  
Vol 64 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Damião P. de Sousa ◽  
Franklin F. F. Nóbrega ◽  
Liana C. S. L. de Morais ◽  
Reinaldo N. de Almeida

Terpinen-4-ol is a monoterpenoid alcohol and component of the essential oils of several aromatic plants. Similarly to terpinen-4-ol, other monoterpenoid alcohols have shown anticonvulsant activity in convulsion animal models. The present study aimed to investigate the anticonvulsant activity of terpinen-4-ol. Treatment of mice with terpinen-4-ol ( 200 mg/kg) caused a signifi cant decrease in the spontaneous motor activity at 30, 60 and 120 min after administration. Terpinen-4-ol (100 and 200 mg/kg) produced a significant dosedependent increase in the duration of sleeping in mice. Pretreatment of mice with terpinen-4- ol at doses of 100, 200 and 300 mg/kg significantly increased the latency of pentylenetetrazole -induced convulsions. Terpinen-4-ol (200 and 300 mg/kg) also inhibited the induced seizures of picrotoxin. In another model, maximal electroshock seizure, terpinen-4-ol decreased the tonic hind convulsions percentage at the dose of 300 mg/kg. From the overall results we can conclude that terpinen-4-ol showed a depressant effect on the central nervous system and significant anticonvulsant activity.


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