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Physiopathological Role of Neuroactive Steroids in the Peripheral Nervous System

Peripheral neuropathy (PN) refers to many conditions involving damage to the peripheral nervous system (PNS). Usually, PN causes weakness, numbness and pain and is the result of traumatic injuries, infections, metabolic problems, inherited causes, or exposure to chemicals. Despite the high prevalenc...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Falvo, Eva, Diviccaro, Silvia, Melcangi, Roberto Cosimo, Giatti, Silvia
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7731236/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33256238
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms21239000
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author Falvo, Eva
Diviccaro, Silvia
Melcangi, Roberto Cosimo
Giatti, Silvia
author_facet Falvo, Eva
Diviccaro, Silvia
Melcangi, Roberto Cosimo
Giatti, Silvia
author_sort Falvo, Eva
collection PubMed
description Peripheral neuropathy (PN) refers to many conditions involving damage to the peripheral nervous system (PNS). Usually, PN causes weakness, numbness and pain and is the result of traumatic injuries, infections, metabolic problems, inherited causes, or exposure to chemicals. Despite the high prevalence of PN, available treatments are still unsatisfactory. Neuroactive steroids (i.e., steroid hormones synthesized by peripheral glands as well as steroids directly synthesized in the nervous system) represent important physiological regulators of PNS functionality. Data obtained so far and here discussed, indeed show that in several experimental models of PN the levels of neuroactive steroids are affected by the pathology and that treatment with these molecules is able to exert protective effects on several PN features, including neuropathic pain. Of note, the observations that neuroactive steroid levels are sexually dimorphic not only in physiological status but also in PN, associated with the finding that PN show sex dimorphic manifestations, may suggest the possibility of a sex specific therapy based on neuroactive steroids.
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spelling pubmed-77312362020-12-12 Physiopathological Role of Neuroactive Steroids in the Peripheral Nervous System Falvo, Eva Diviccaro, Silvia Melcangi, Roberto Cosimo Giatti, Silvia Int J Mol Sci Review Peripheral neuropathy (PN) refers to many conditions involving damage to the peripheral nervous system (PNS). Usually, PN causes weakness, numbness and pain and is the result of traumatic injuries, infections, metabolic problems, inherited causes, or exposure to chemicals. Despite the high prevalence of PN, available treatments are still unsatisfactory. Neuroactive steroids (i.e., steroid hormones synthesized by peripheral glands as well as steroids directly synthesized in the nervous system) represent important physiological regulators of PNS functionality. Data obtained so far and here discussed, indeed show that in several experimental models of PN the levels of neuroactive steroids are affected by the pathology and that treatment with these molecules is able to exert protective effects on several PN features, including neuropathic pain. Of note, the observations that neuroactive steroid levels are sexually dimorphic not only in physiological status but also in PN, associated with the finding that PN show sex dimorphic manifestations, may suggest the possibility of a sex specific therapy based on neuroactive steroids. MDPI 2020-11-26 /pmc/articles/PMC7731236/ /pubmed/33256238 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms21239000 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Falvo, Eva
Diviccaro, Silvia
Melcangi, Roberto Cosimo
Giatti, Silvia
Physiopathological Role of Neuroactive Steroids in the Peripheral Nervous System
title Physiopathological Role of Neuroactive Steroids in the Peripheral Nervous System
title_full Physiopathological Role of Neuroactive Steroids in the Peripheral Nervous System
title_fullStr Physiopathological Role of Neuroactive Steroids in the Peripheral Nervous System
title_full_unstemmed Physiopathological Role of Neuroactive Steroids in the Peripheral Nervous System
title_short Physiopathological Role of Neuroactive Steroids in the Peripheral Nervous System
title_sort physiopathological role of neuroactive steroids in the peripheral nervous system
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7731236/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33256238
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms21239000
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