1. Impaired Neuropathic Pain and Preserved Acute Pain in Rats Overexpressing Voltage-Gated Potassium Channel Subunit Kv1.2 in Primary Afferent Neurons
- Author
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Vinod Tiwari, Hongkang Zhang, Jian-Yuan Zhao, Longchang Fan, Paul N. Hoffman, Xiaowei Guan, Yuan Xiang Tao, Wei Wang, and Min Li
- Subjects
Male ,Nociception ,Time Factors ,medicine.medical_treatment ,Distribution ,Pharmacology ,Neuropathic pain ,Rats, Sprague-Dawley ,0302 clinical medicine ,Dorsal root ganglion ,Peripheral Nerve Injuries ,Ganglia, Spinal ,Kv1.2 Potassium Channel ,0303 health sciences ,Kv1.2 ,Voltage-gated potassium channel ,Acute Pain ,Potassium channel ,Up-Regulation ,Protein Transport ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Peripheral nerve injury ,Molecular Medicine ,Sciatic nerve ,Axotomy ,Motor Activity ,Transfection ,Potassium channels ,03 medical and health sciences ,Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience ,medicine ,Animals ,Humans ,RNA, Antisense ,Neurons, Afferent ,RNA, Messenger ,Ligation ,030304 developmental biology ,business.industry ,Research ,Rats ,HEK293 Cells ,Spinal Nerves ,Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine ,nervous system ,Neuralgia ,Capsaicin ,business ,Neuroscience ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery - Abstract
Voltage-gated potassium (Kv) channels are critical in controlling neuronal excitability and are involved in the induction of neuropathic pain. Therefore, Kv channels might be potential targets for prevention and/or treatment of this disorder. We reported here that a majority of dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons were positive for Kv channel alpha subunit Kv1.2. Most of them were large and medium, although there was a variety of sizes. Peripheral nerve injury caused by lumbar (L)5 spinal nerve ligation (SNL) produced a time-dependent reduction in the number of Kv1.2-positive neurons in the ipsilateral L5 DRG, but not in the contralateral L5 DRG. Such reduction was also observed in the ipsilateral L5 DRG on day 7 after sciatic nerve axotomy. Rescuing nerve injury-induced reduction of Kv1.2 in the injured L5 DRG attenuated the development and maintenance of SNL-induced pain hypersensitivity without affecting acute pain and locomotor function. This effect might be attributed to the prevention of SNL-induced upregulation of endogenous Kv1.2 antisense RNA, in addition to the increase in Kv1.2 protein expression, in the injured DRG. Our findings suggest that Kv1.2 may be a novel potential target for preventing and/or treating neuropathic pain.
- Published
- 2014