Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms of Chronic Pain
A special issue of Cells (ISSN 2073-4409). This special issue belongs to the section "Cellular Pathology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 July 2024) | Viewed by 6779
Special Issue Editor
Interests: identification of the anatomical and molecular substrate where the reciprocal interactions between chronic pain and affective/cognitive disorders occur; novel pharmacological targets for the therapy of chronic pain and associated neuropsychiatric comorbidity; modulation of neurotransmissions involved in acute, persistent, inflammatory, and neuropathic pain in the pain descending system or closely associated brain areas; metabotropic and ionotropic glutamate, cannabinoid CB1 and CB2, vanilloid TRPV1, serotonin, adenosine and prostaglandin receptor role on pain transmission; animal models of chronic pain, anxiety, depression, social behavior, chronic stress, obsessive/compulsive and cognitive disorders; pharmacological modulation of the neuron electric activity and aminoacidergic/monoaminergic neurotransmitter levels involved in pain transmission and affective and cognitive disorders
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Chronic pain, with a prevalence in the general population that according to some estimates reaches 18% of diagnoses each year, represents an unresolved medical emergency. Currently available analgesics are not satisfactorily effective and are associated with severe side effects and tolerance and addiction potential. There are different types of chronic pain such as musculoskeletal, visceral, neuropathic and oncological, with different etiologies and underlying mechanisms not yet clearly understood. However, what unites all types of chronic pain is synaptic plasticity: mediators, neurotransmitters, mechanisms and circuits involved under intense and prolonged stimulation facilitate pain signals generating hypersensitivity. Synaptic plasticity, at the basis of peripheral and central sensitization, represents the conversion point of pain from useful to pathological. Therefore, all investigations aiming to identify these pathophysiological mechanisms are essential to identify and develop new, more effective and better-tolerated painkillers. All studies related to this field of interest will be collected for this Special Issue.
Dr. Enza Palazzo
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- chronic pain
- nociceptors
- ascending pain pathway
- descending pain pathway
- peripheral and central sensitization
- neural plasticity
- pain neurotransmitters
- hyperalgesia
- allodynia
- analgesics
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