Altered thalamic neurotransmitters metabolism and functional connectivity during the development of chronic constriction injury induced neuropathic pain

Wang, Zhifu; Huang, Scott C.-H.; Yu, Xiangmei; Li, Long; Yang, Minguang; Liang, Shengxiang; Li, Weilin; Tao, Jing

doi:10.1186/s40659-020-00303-5

Cited by 17 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…For instance, ALFF was reported to be increased in the post- and precentral gyrus, paracentral lobule, supplementary motor area, and anterior cingulate cortex, and this feature may be associated with the neuropathology of chronic low back pain ( 6 ). ReHo was decreased in the thalamus in neuropathic pain ( 7 ), and ReHo values in abnormal brain regions were associated with pain intensity in postherpetic neuralgia patients ( 8 ). In addition, functional connectivity (FC), which is used to assess brain activity synchronization between any set of brain areas, was reported to be increased in the insular cortex in our previous study on trigeminal neuralgia ( 9 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Global brain signal regression was not performed because it can cause correlation coefficient redistribution and ambiguous interpretation of negative correlations of FC. (6) To make inter-subject comparisons feasible, individual functional images were warped to standard Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) space through spatial normalization (7). Detrending was applied to reduce the systematic signal drift with time using a linear model.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Altered brain functional activity and connectivity in bone metastasis pain of lung cancer patients: A preliminary resting-state fMRI study

et al. 2022

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Bone metastasis pain (BMP) is one of the most prevalent symptoms among cancer survivors. The present study aims to explore the brain functional activity and connectivity patterns in BMP of lung cancer patients preliminarily. Thirty BMP patients and 33 healthy controls (HCs) matched for age and sex were recruited from inpatients and communities, respectively. All participants underwent fMRI data acquisition and pain assessment. Low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) and regional homogeneity (ReHo) were applied to evaluate brain functional activity. Then, functional connectivity (FC) was calculated for the ALFF- and ReHo-identified seed brain regions. A two-sample t-test or Manny–Whitney U-test was applied to compare demographic and neuropsychological data as well as the neuroimaging indices according to the data distribution. A correlation analysis was conducted to explore the potential relationships between neuroimaging indices and pain intensity. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was applied to assess the classification performance of neuroimaging indices in discriminating individual subjects between the BMP patients and HCs. No significant intergroup differences in demographic and neuropsychological data were noted. BMP patients showed reduced ALFF and ReHo largely in the prefrontal cortex and increased ReHo in the bilateral thalamus and left fusiform gyrus. The lower FC was found within the prefrontal cortex. No significant correlation between the neuroimaging indices and pain intensity was observed. The neuroimaging indices showed satisfactory classification performance between the BMP patients and HCs, and the combined ALFF and ReHo showed a better accuracy rate (93.7%) than individual indices. In conclusion, altered brain functional activity and connectivity in the prefrontal cortex, fusiform gyrus, and thalamus may be associated with the neuropathology of BMP and may represent a potential biomarker for classifying BMP patients and healthy controls.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

Altered brain functional activity and connectivity in bone metastasis pain of lung cancer patients: A preliminary resting-state fMRI study

et al. 2022

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“…Alternately, stronger rsFC could reflect cortical disinhibition, a compensatory mechanism to magnify weaker sensory input from a damaged nerve to maintain sensory perception in the hand, 22 as proposed to occur in patients whose median nerves were transected and subsequently repaired. 29 A rodent model of chronic nerve constriction found enhanced thalamic-S1 FC during the development of neuropathic pain, 73 and stronger thalamic-S1 rsFC compared with HCs has been reported in other chronic pain conditions 74–76 including upper extremity neuropathic pain, where stronger thalamic-S1 FC was associated with lower tactile acuity and weaker FC was linked with higher pain scores. 77 Conversely, diabetic-neuropathy patients show reduced thalamic-S1 FC, particularly those with mechanical hyperalgesia.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Carpal tunnel surgery dampens thalamocortical and normalizes corticocortical functional connectivity

Osborne

Anastakis

Kim

et al. 2022

Brain Communications

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Carpal tunnel syndrome is the most common entrapment neuropathy and is associated with altered brain function and structure. However, little is understood of the central mechanisms associated with its pain, symptom presentation and treatment-related resolution. This longitudinal study evaluated carpal tunnel syndrome-related alterations in brain network communication and relationships to behavioural signs of central sensitization before and after carpal tunnel release surgery. We tested the hypothesis that carpal tunnel syndrome is associated with condition- and treatment-related plasticity in brain regions involved in somatosensation. We used quantitative sensory testing and clinical and pain questionnaires to assess sensory and pain function in 25 patients with carpal tunnel syndrome before (18 women, 7 men) and after (n = 16) surgery, and 25 sex- and age-matched healthy controls. We also acquired resting state functional MRI to determine functional connectivity of two key nodes in the somatosensory system, the thalamus and primary somatosensory cortex. Seed-to-whole brain static resting state static functional connectivity analyses revealed abnormally low functional connectivity for the hand area of the primary somatosensory cortex with the contralateral somatosensory association cortex (supramarginal gyrus) before surgery (P < 0.01). After clinically effective surgery: 1) Primary somatosensory functional connectivity was normalized with the contralateral somatosensory association cortex, and reduced with the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (a region associated with cognitive and emotional modulation of pain) and primary visual areas (P < 0.001) from pre-op levels; and 2) Functional connectivity of the thalamus with the primary somatosensory and motor cortices was attenuated from pre-op levels (P < 0.001), but did not correlate with temporal summation of pain (a behavioural measure of central sensitization) or clinical measures. This study is the first to reveal treatment-related neuroplasticity in resting state functional connectivity of the somatosensory system in carpal tunnel syndrome. The findings of dysfunctional resting state functional connectivity point to aberrant neural synchrony between the brain’s representation of the hand with regions involved in processing and integrating tactile and nociceptive stimuli and proprioception in carpal tunnel syndrome. Aberrant neural communication between the primary somatosensory hand area and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex could reflect increased attention to pain, paraesthesia and altered sensation in the hand. Finally, reduced thalamocortical functional connectivity after surgery may reflect central plasticity in response to the resolution of abnormal sensory signals from the periphery. Our findings support the concept of underlying brain contributions to this peripheral neuropathy, specifically aberrant thalamocortical and corticocortical communication, and point to potential central therapeutic targets to complement peripheral treatments.

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“…Research reports have illustrated that metabolic dysregulation performs a central function in NP and that there is cross-talk between metabolic, inflammatory, and immune responses in NP [ 17 ]. Previous studies have shown that NP led to metabolic changes in serum and spinal cord; changes in thalamic neurotransmitter metabolism have also been reported [ 18 ]. Functional enrichment analysis in bioinformatic investigations on NP revealed that the majority of the downmodulated genes are linked to pathways including positive modulation of protein kinase B signaling, phospholipid metabolic activities, and metabolism of xenobiotics by cytochrome P450 [ 19 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

CircRNA-Associated ceRNA Network Reveals Focal Adhesion and Metabolism Pathways in Neuropathic Pain

Wang

Bao

Zhou

et al. 2022

Journal of Oncology

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Background. Increasing evidence has shown that noncoding RNAs perform a remarkable function in neuropathic pain (NP); nonetheless, the mechanisms underlying the modulation of competitive endogenous RNA in NP remain uncertain. The goal of this research was to investigate the molecular processes underlying NP. Methods. We utilized the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) to obtain NP-related microarray datasets that included the expression patterns of circular RNAs (circRNAs) and messenger RNAs (mRNAs). Following that, bioinformatics analyses and a molecular biology experiment were carried out. Results. According to the findings, carrying out enrichment studies of the targeted genes had an impact on a variety of NP-related pathways. Notably, we isolated a ceRNA subnetwork incorporating two upregulated circRNAs (Esrrg and Map3k3) which primarily participate in the focal adhesion pathway by regulating Integrin Subunit Beta 4 (ITGB4) and two downregulated circRNAs (Dgkb and Atp2a2), which potentially regulate metabolism-related molecule Lipase A (LIPA). Conclusions. According to our findings, the focal adhesion and metabolic signaling pathways could be critical in the advancement of NP, and some circRNA might regulate this biological process through the ceRNA network, which might offer pertinent insights into the underlying mechanisms.

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Altered thalamic neurotransmitters metabolism and functional connectivity during the development of chronic constriction injury induced neuropathic pain

Cited by 17 publications

References 51 publications

Altered brain functional activity and connectivity in bone metastasis pain of lung cancer patients: A preliminary resting-state fMRI study

Altered brain functional activity and connectivity in bone metastasis pain of lung cancer patients: A preliminary resting-state fMRI study

Carpal tunnel surgery dampens thalamocortical and normalizes corticocortical functional connectivity

CircRNA-Associated ceRNA Network Reveals Focal Adhesion and Metabolism Pathways in Neuropathic Pain

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