Gene/Protein
Disease
Symptom
Drug
Enzyme
Compound
Pivot Concepts:
Gene/Protein
Disease
Symptom
Drug
Enzyme
Compound
Target Concepts:
Gene/Protein
Disease
Symptom
Drug
Enzyme
Compound
Query: UNIPROT:P21554 (
cannabinoid receptor
)
3,582
document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)
Naked mole-rats (
Heterocephalus glaber
) have adaptations within their pain pathway that are beneficial to survival in large colonies within poorly ventilated burrow systems, with lower O
2
and higher CO
2
ambient levels than ground-level environments. These adaptations ultimately lead to a partial disruption of the C-fiber pain pathway, which enables naked mole-rats to not feel pain from the acidosis associated with CO
2
accumulation. One hallmark of this disruption is that naked mole-rats do not express neuropeptides, such as Substance P and calcitonin gene-related peptide in their cutaneous C-fibers, effectively making the peptidergic pain pathway hypofunctional. One C-fiber pathway that remains unstudied in the naked mole-rat is the non-peptidergic, purinergic pathway, despite this being a key pathway for inflammatory pain. The current study aimed to establish the functionality of the purinergic pathway in naked mole-rats and the effectiveness of cannabinoids in attenuating pain through this pathway. Cannabinoids can manage chronic inflammatory pain in both humans and mouse models, and studies suggest a major downstream role for the purinergic receptor,
P2X3
, in this treatment. Here we used Ca
2+
-imaging of cultured dorsal root ganglion neurons and
in vivo
behavioral testing to demonstrate that the
P2X3
pathway is functional in naked mole-rats. Additionally, formalin-induced inflammatory pain was reduced by the
cannabinoid receptor
agonist, WIN55 (inflammatory, but not acute phase) and the
P2X3
receptor antagonist A-317491 (acute and inflammatory phases). This study establishes that the purinergic C-fiber pathway is present and functional in naked mole-rats and that cannabinoid-mediated analgesia occurs in this species.
...
PMID:The naked mole-rat has a functional purinergic pain pathway despite having a non-functional peptidergic pain pathway. 3247 2
