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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,...

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Autores principales: Radu, Beatrice Mihaela, Bramanti, Placido, Osculati, Francesco, Flonta, Maria-Luisa, Radu, Mihai, Bertini, Giuseppe, Fabene, Paolo Francesco
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2013
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.
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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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