Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0030193 (pain)
 261,466 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The effect of adenosine on inhibitory postsynaptic currents (IPSCs) was examined in substantia gelatinosa (SG) neurons of adult rat spinal cord slices by using the whole cell patch-clamp technique. Adenosine reversibly reduced the amplitude of GABAergic and glycinergic electrically evoked IPSCs (eIPSCs) in a dose-dependent manner (EC50 = 14.5 and 19.1 microM, respectively). The A1 adenosine-receptor agonist N6-cyclopentyladenosine also reduced the eIPSCs, whereas the A1 antagonist 8-cyclopentyl-1,3-dimethylxanthine reversed the inhibition produced by adenosine. In paired-pulse experiments, the ratio of the second to first GABAergic or glycinergic eIPSC amplitude was increased by adenosine, whereas the response of SG neurons to exogenous GABA or glycine was unaffected. Adenosine reduced the frequency of GABAergic and glycinergic spontaneous IPSCs without changing their amplitude. This reduction in frequency disappeared in the presence of a K+ -channel blocker (4-aminopyridine) but not in the absence of Ca2+. The inhibition by adenosine disappeared in the presence of cyclic-AMP analog (8-Br-cyclic AMP) and adenylate-cyclase activator (forskolin) but not protein-kinase C (PKC) activator (phorbol-12,13-dibutyrate). We conclude that adenosine suppresses inhibitory transmission in SG neurons by activating presynaptic A1 receptors and that this action is mediated by K+ channels and cyclic AMP but not by Ca2+ channels and PKC. This inhibitory action of adenosine probably contributes to the modulation of pain transmission in the SG.
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PMID:Adenosine inhibits GABAergic and glycinergic transmission in adult rat substantia gelatinosa neurons. 1520 7

Adenosine is a purine nucleoside and modulates a variety of physiological functions by interacting with cell-surface adenosine receptors. Under several adverse conditions, including ischemia, trauma, stress, seizures and inflammation, extracellular levels of adenosine are increased due to increased energy demands and ATP metabolism. Increased adenosine could protect against excessive cellular damage and organ dysfunction. Indeed, several protective effects of adenosine have been widely reported (e.g., amelioration of ischemic heart and brain injury, seizures and inflammation). However, the effects of adenosine itself are insufficient because extracellular adenosine is rapidly taken up into adjacent cells and subsequently metabolized. Adenosine uptake inhibitors (nucleoside transport inhibitors) could retard the disappearance of adenosine from the extracellular space by blocking adenosine uptake into cells. Therefore, it is expected that adenosine uptake inhibitors will have protective effects in various diseases, by elevating extracellular adenosine levels. Protective or ameliorating effects of adenosine uptake inhibitors in ischemic cardiac and cerebral injury, organ transplantation, seizures, thrombosis, insomnia, pain, and inflammatory diseases have been reported. Preclinical and clinical results indicate the possibility of therapeutic application of adenosine uptake inhibitors.
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PMID:Adenosine uptake inhibitors. 1521 15

Adenosine is an important endogenous purine neuromodulator in the central nervous system that modulates many important cellular processes in neurons. The physiological effects of adenosine are transduced through four pharmacologically classified receptor types i.e., A1, A2A, A2B and A3. All adenosine receptors are G-protein coupled receptors (GPCR) of the type 1 variety. Adaptations in adenosine signaling have been implicated in a wide range of pathophysiological processes, such as epilepsies, sleep disorders, pain, and drug addictions. Knowledge relating to the etiology of addictive processes is far from complete, and as a result the therapeutic options to deal with drug dependence issues are limited. Drugs of abuse mediate their effects through many distinct cellular effectors, such as neurotransmitter transporters, ion channels, and receptor proteins. However, a unifying feature of the major drugs of abuse-i.e., opiates, cocaine, and alcohol-is that they all directly or indirectly modulate adenosine signaling in neurons. Agents targeting adenosine receptors may therefore offer novel avenues for the development of therapies to manage or treat addictions. A consistent cellular adaptation to long-term drug use is the up- or down-regulation of signaling pathways driven by adenylyl cyclase/cyclic AMP (cAMP) in several brain regions linked to addiction. Withdrawal from mu-opioids or cocaine following their chronic administration leads to an upregulation of adenylyl cyclase-mediated signaling, resulting in high levels of cAMP. Cyclic AMP produced in this way acts as a substrate for the endogenous production of adenosine. Increased levels of endogenous adenosine interact with presynaptic A1 receptors to inhibit the excessive neuronal excitation often seen during morphine/cocaine withdrawal. These pre-clinical findings fit well with other data indicating that drugs which boost endogenous adenosine levels or directly interact with inhibitory A1 receptors can alleviate many of the negative consequences of opioid/cocaine withdrawal. Ethanol interacts directly with the adenosine system by blocking nucleoside transporters in the cell membrane. The effect of this inhibition is an increase in extracellular adenosine levels and adenosine receptor activation. Depending on the time course of ethanol exposure and the receptor population present, cAMP levels are either reduced or increased. Chronic ethanol treatment tends to reduce cAMP levels as a consequence of the desensitization of stimulatory GPCRs (such as A2-type receptors) seen following prolonged receptor activation. Unlike opiates and cocaine, adenosine receptor activation worsens the behavioral effects of drug ingestion, and evidence indicates that agents that negatively modulate adenosine receptor function have some utility in attenuating the effects of ethanol use. Taken together, these data suggest that pharmacological manipulation of adenosine signaling represents a potentially useful means of managing drug dependence.
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PMID:Adaptations in adenosine signaling in drug dependence: therapeutic implications. 1524 12

Human pain models invoking central sensitization, one of the key mechanisms of chronic pain, may be useful for characterizing new analgesics. A new model of electrical hyperalgesia can detect the efficacy of several analgesic mechanisms. Because IV adenosine can alleviate neuropathic pain, we investigated its effect on experimental sensitization. This was a double-blinded, randomized, two-period crossover study in 20 healthy volunteers. Current pulses (0.5 ms; 1 Hz) were applied intracutaneously to achieve pain rating of approximately 5 on a 0-10 numeric rating scale. Pain, areas of pinprick hyperalgesia, and tactile allodynia were assessed during the 2.5-h stimulation period. Adenosine (50 microg. kg(-1). min(-1)) and placebo were infused IV over 60 min. Additional testing was performed 24 h after each treatment. Adenosine reduced the area of pinprick hyperalgesia during the infusion compared with placebo; there was no significant effect on tactile allodynia or pain rating. The effect on hyperalgesia developed over 15 min and was significant (P < or = 0.05) for the rest of the infusion period. There was no difference between treatments at 24 h. Thus, in accordance with reports on neuropathic pain, adenosine reduced central sensitization in the human model of electrical hyperalgesia. However, adenosine did not have the long-term effects seen in patients. The model can investigate mechanisms of drugs for the treatment of chronic pain.
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PMID:The effect of intravenous infusion of adenosine on electrically evoked hyperalgesia in a healthy volunteer model of central sensitization. 1533 16

Adenosine, agmatine and kynurenic acid are endogenous ligands acting on different (e.g. adenosine, NMDA, alpha(2)-adrenergic and imidazoline) receptors with a potential role in nociception at the spinal level. Their antinociceptive effects have already been investigated as monotherapy, but only a few studies have reported on their effects on the potency of other drugs. The purpose of the present study was carried out to analyse their interactions during continuous intrathecal co-administration in a carrageenan-induced thermal hyperalgesia model in rats. A paw withdrawal test was used for nociceptive testing. The intrathecal infusion (60 min) of these three drugs was administered alone or in combinations (kynurenic acid+adenosine or agmatine; adenosine+agmatine), which was followed by an additional 60-min observation period. Kynurenic acid alone was ineffective, while adenosine and agmatine alone caused a slight increase in pain threshold. However, independently of the applied doses all of the combinations significantly (p<0.05) increased the paw withdrawal latencies on the inflamed side during and after the infusion, but were almost ineffective on the normal side. The adenosine+kynurenic acid combination was the most effective: namely, that it relieved thermal hyperalgesia in all the applied dose combinations. Treatment with the kynurenic acid-containing combinations also caused dose-dependent side-effects (motor impairment and excitation), despite the fact that monotherapy with kynurenic acid in the applied dose (0.1 microg/min) did not result in adverse effects.
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PMID:Dose-independent antinociceptive interaction of endogenous ligands at the spinal level. 1553 20

Adenosine (ADO) acts as an inhibitory neuromodulator throughout the central and peripheral nervous system and can regulate seizure and nociceptive activity. However, the positive actions of systemically administered ADO are usually accompanied by undesirable side effects such as hypomobility and cardio-suppression. Adenosine kinase (AK) is the primary metabolic enzyme regulating intra- and extracellular concentrations of ADO. We review the recent development of structurally novel nucleoside and nonnucleoside AK inhibitors that demonstrate high specificity for the AK enzyme. Several of these compounds have shown significant beneficial effects in animal models of epilepsy and pain with an improved preclinical therapeutic window over direct acting ADO receptor agonists.
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PMID:Anticonvulsant and antinociceptive actions of novel adenosine kinase inhibitors. 1563 77

The objective of this investigation was to characterise the pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic correlation of adenosine A1 receptor partial agonists in the chronic constriction injury model of neuropathic pain. Following intravenous administration of 8-methylamino-N6-cyclopentyl-adenosine (MCPA; 10 mg/kg) and 2'deoxyribose-N6-cyclopentyl-adenosine (2'dCPA; 20 mg/kg), the time course of the effect on the mechanical paw pressure threshold was determined in conjunction with plasma concentrations. Population pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic analysis was applied to derive individual concentration-effect relationships. A composite model consisting of an E(max) model for the anti-hyperalgesic effect in combination with a linear model for the anti-nociceptive effect accurately described the concentration-effect relationship. For both compounds, a full anti-hyperalgesic effect was observed. The values of the EC50 for the anti-hyperalgesic effect were (mean+/-S.D.): 3170+/-1460 and 2660+/-1200 ng/ml for MCPA and 2'dCPA versus 178+/-51 ng/ml for the reference full agonist 5'deoxyribose-N6-cyclopentyl-adenosine (5'dCPA). The values of the slope for the anti-nociceptive effect were 1.9+/-0.30 and 1.2+/-0.20 g.microl/ng, respectively, versus 55+/-8 g microl/ng for 5'dCPA. Adenosine A1 receptor partial agonists behave as full agonists with regard to the anti-hyperalgesic effect in neuropathic pain, but the anti-nociceptive effect is diminished.
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PMID:Pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic modelling of the anti-hyperalgesic and anti-nociceptive effect of adenosine A1 receptor partial agonists in neuropathic pain. 1591 Jul 99

Adenosine (ADO) is an endogenous purine nucleoside that functions as an extracellular signalling molecule. It is released locally at sites of cellular trauma, and acts on specific cell-surface purinergic receptors (termed P1 receptors) near its site of release to exert its effects. Four subtypes of the P1 family of G-protein-coupled receptors have been identified and cloned: A1, A2A, A2B and A3. A considerable body of evidence, including experimental animal data and preliminary clinical reports, indicates that ADO is involved in modulating endogenous antinociceptive processes in the brain and spinal cord. ADO analogues provide analgesic activity after systemic or spinal administration in a broad spectrum of animal pain models. In addition, iv. ADO infusion has shown benefit in human pain states. The spinal cord is a key site for ADO-mediated modulation of nociception. ADO is well known to act as an inhibitory neuromodulator in the central and peripheral nervous system, and it may act to control N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA)- and substance P-mediated events in nociception and central sensitisation at the spinal level. ADO is also released at sites of inflammation and it exerts anti-inflammatory effects via multiple mechanisms involving several cell types. These include effects on neutrophil function, endothelial cell permeability, in vivo and in vitro release of tumour necrosis factor (TNF-alpha and collagenase expression in synoviocytes. Accordingly, ADO analogues are effective in several animal models of inflammation, including the rat adjuvant arthritis model. Several therapeutic approaches to pain and inflammation, based on mimicking or modulating the effects of endogenous ADO, are currently under preclinical and clinical investigation. These include the use of ADO itself, the use of direct-acting ADO receptor agonists and the use of agents designed to modulate the levels and, therefore, the actions of ADO in the extracellular space (ADO kinase (AK) inhibitors). Data emerging in the next several years should indicate whether these strategies represent a therapeutically useful new approach to analgesia and inflammation.
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PMID:Adenosine modulation: a novel approach to analgesia and inflammation. 1599 91

This review summarizes clinical application of adenosine and adenosine 5'-triphosphate (ATP) in pain conditions. Investigations have been performed in patients with acute perioperative pain or chronic neuropathic pain treated with intravenous adenosine or ATP, or intrathecal adenosine. Characteristic central adenosine A1 receptor-mediated pain-relieving effects have been observed after intravenous adenosine infusion in human inflammation/sensitization pain models and in patients with chronic neuropathic pain. Adenosine compounds, in low doses, can reduce allodynia/hyperalgesia more consistently than spontaneous pain, suggesting that these compounds affect neuronal pathophysiological mechanisms involved in central sensitization. Such pain-relieving effects, which are mostly mediated via central adenosine A1 receptor activation, have a slow onset and long duration of action, lasting usually for hours or days and occasionally for months. With acute perioperative pain, treatment with a low-dose infusion of adenosine compounds and the A1 receptor-mediated central antisensitization mechanisms may play only a minor part in the total perioperative pain experience. By administering sufficient doses of adenosine compounds during surgery, however, significant and long-lasting perioperative pain relief can be achieved via central A1 receptor-mediated antinociceptive/analgesic actions as well as via peripheral A2a or A3 receptor-mediated antiinflammatory actions. Thus, adenosine compounds have significant potential for alleviating various types of pain.
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PMID:Clinical application of adenosine and ATP for pain control. 1603 51

Purinergic system exerts a significant influence on the modulation of pain pathways at the spinal site. Adenosine has antinociceptive properties in experimental and clinical situations, while ATP exerts pronociceptive actions in different pain models. In this study we investigated the hydrolysis of ATP to adenosine in synaptosomes from spinal cord in parallel with the nociceptive response of rats at different ages after hypothyroidism induction. Hypothyroidism elicited a significant increase in AMP hydrolysis to adenosine in synaptosomes from spinal cord of rats subjected to neonatal hypothyroidism and in 420-day-old rats submitted to thyroidectomy. Accordingly, these rats presented an analgesic response as a consequence of hypothyroidism. In contrast, the ATP hydrolysis was decreased in the spinal cord of 60-day-old hypothyroid rats in parallel with a significant increase in nociceptive response. These results indicate the involvement of adenine nucleotides in the control of the hypothyroidism-induced nociceptive response during development.
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PMID:Nociceptive response and adenine nucleotide hydrolysis in synaptosomes isolated from spinal cord of hypothyroid rats. 1629 9


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