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Neurovascular Unit in Chronic Pain
Chronic pain is a debilitating condition with major socioeconomic impact, whose neurobiological basis is still not clear. An involvement of the neurovascular unit (NVU) has been recently proposed. In particular, the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and blood-spinal cord barrier (BSCB), two NVU key players,...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
2013
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3687484/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23840097 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/648268 |
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author | Radu, Beatrice Mihaela Bramanti, Placido Osculati, Francesco Flonta, Maria-Luisa Radu, Mihai Bertini, Giuseppe Fabene, Paolo Francesco |
author_facet | Radu, Beatrice Mihaela Bramanti, Placido Osculati, Francesco Flonta, Maria-Luisa Radu, Mihai Bertini, Giuseppe Fabene, Paolo Francesco |
author_sort | Radu, Beatrice Mihaela |
collection | PubMed |
description | Chronic pain is a debilitating condition with major socioeconomic impact, whose neurobiological basis is still not clear. An involvement of the neurovascular unit (NVU) has been recently proposed. In particular, the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and blood-spinal cord barrier (BSCB), two NVU key players, may be affected during the development of chronic pain; in particular, transient permeabilization of the barrier is suggested by several inflammatory- and nerve-injury-based pain models, and we argue that the clarification of molecular BBB/BSCB permeabilization events will shed new light in understanding chronic pain mechanisms. Possible biases in experiments supporting this theory and its translational potentials are discussed. Moving beyond an exclusive focus on the role of the endothelium, we propose that our understanding of the mechanisms subserving chronic pain will benefit from the extension of research efforts to the NVU as a whole. In this view, the available evidence on the interaction between analgesic drugs and the NVU is here reviewed. Chronic pain comorbidities, such as neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases, are also discussed in view of NVU changes, together with innovative pharmacological solutions targeting NVU components in chronic pain treatment. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3687484 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2013 |
publisher | Hindawi Publishing Corporation |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-36874842013-07-09 Neurovascular Unit in Chronic Pain Radu, Beatrice Mihaela Bramanti, Placido Osculati, Francesco Flonta, Maria-Luisa Radu, Mihai Bertini, Giuseppe Fabene, Paolo Francesco Mediators Inflamm Review Article Chronic pain is a debilitating condition with major socioeconomic impact, whose neurobiological basis is still not clear. An involvement of the neurovascular unit (NVU) has been recently proposed. In particular, the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and blood-spinal cord barrier (BSCB), two NVU key players, may be affected during the development of chronic pain; in particular, transient permeabilization of the barrier is suggested by several inflammatory- and nerve-injury-based pain models, and we argue that the clarification of molecular BBB/BSCB permeabilization events will shed new light in understanding chronic pain mechanisms. Possible biases in experiments supporting this theory and its translational potentials are discussed. Moving beyond an exclusive focus on the role of the endothelium, we propose that our understanding of the mechanisms subserving chronic pain will benefit from the extension of research efforts to the NVU as a whole. In this view, the available evidence on the interaction between analgesic drugs and the NVU is here reviewed. Chronic pain comorbidities, such as neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases, are also discussed in view of NVU changes, together with innovative pharmacological solutions targeting NVU components in chronic pain treatment. Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2013 2013-06-05 /pmc/articles/PMC3687484/ /pubmed/23840097 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/648268 Text en Copyright © 2013 Beatrice Mihaela Radu et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Review Article Radu, Beatrice Mihaela Bramanti, Placido Osculati, Francesco Flonta, Maria-Luisa Radu, Mihai Bertini, Giuseppe Fabene, Paolo Francesco Neurovascular Unit in Chronic Pain |
title | Neurovascular Unit in Chronic Pain |
title_full | Neurovascular Unit in Chronic Pain |
title_fullStr | Neurovascular Unit in Chronic Pain |
title_full_unstemmed | Neurovascular Unit in Chronic Pain |
title_short | Neurovascular Unit in Chronic Pain |
title_sort | neurovascular unit in chronic pain |
topic | Review Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3687484/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23840097 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/648268 |
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