NeuroHeal Treatment Alleviates Neuropathic Pain and Enhances Sensory Axon Regeneration
Romeo-Guitart, David (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Biologia Cel·lular, de Fisiologia i d'Immunologia)
Casas Louzao, Caty (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Neurociències)

Date:	2020
Abstract:	Peripheral nerve injury (PNI) leads to the loss of motor, sensory, and autonomic functions, and often triggers neuropathic pain. During the last years, many efforts have focused on finding new therapies to increase axonal regeneration or to alleviate painful conditions. Still only a few of them have targeted both phenomena. Incipient or aberrant sensory axon regeneration is related to abnormal unpleasant sensations, such as hyperalgesia or allodynia. We recently have discovered NeuroHeal, a combination of two repurposed drugs; Acamprosate and Ribavirin. NeuroHeal is a neuroprotective agent that also enhances motor axon regeneration after PNI. In this work, we investigated its effect on sensory fiber regeneration and PNI-induced painful sensations in a rat model of spare nerve injury and nerve crush. The follow up of the animals showed that NeuroHeal treatment reduced the signs of neuropathic pain in both models. Besides, the treatment favored sensory axon regeneration, as observed in dorsal root ganglion explants. Mechanistically, the effects observed in vivo may improve the resolution of cell-protective autophagy. Additionally, NeuroHeal treatment modulated the P2X4-BDNF-KCC2 axis, which is an essential driver of neuropathic pain. These data open a new therapeutic avenue based on autophagic modulation to foster endogenous regenerative mechanisms and reduce the appearance of neuropathic pain in PNI.
Grants:	Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad SAF2014-59701
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Peripheral nerve injury ; Neuropathic pain ; Nerve regeneration ; Autophagy ; NeuroHeal
Published in:	Cells, Vol. 9 (march 2020) , ISSN 2073-4409

DOI: 10.3390/cells9040808
PMID: 32230770

15 p, 2.7 MB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Health sciences and biosciences > Institut de Neurociències (INc)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles