The Endocannabinoid System of the Nervous and Gastrointestinal Systems Changes after a Subnoxious Cisplatin Dose in Male Rats.

Cisplatin, a common chemotherapy agent, is well known to cause severe side effects in the gastrointestinal and nervous systems due to its toxic and pro-inflammatory effects. Although pharmacological manipulation of the endocannabinoid system (ECS) can alleviate these side effects, how chemotherapy affects the ECS components in these systems remains poorly understood. Our aim was to evaluate these changes.

Ex Vivo Study of Colon Health, Contractility and Innervation in Male and Female Rats after Regular Exposure to Instant Cascara Beverage.

Instant Cascara (IC) is a sustainable beverage made from dried coffee cherry pulp, a by-product of coffee processing. It is rich in nutrients and bioactive compounds and has a high concentration of antioxidants. This study explored the impact of regular IC consumption on colonic motor function and innervation.

Neurobiological mechanisms of botulinum neurotoxin-induced analgesia for neuropathic pain.

Botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) are a family of neurotoxins produced by Clostridia and other bacteria that induce botulism. BoNTs are internalized into nerve terminals at the site of injection and cleave soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptor (SNARE) proteins to inhibit the vesicular release of neurotransmitters. BoNTs have been approved for multiple therapeutic applications, including the treatment of migraines.

Evaluation of the Effects of Instant Cascara Beverage on the Brain-Gut Axis of Healthy Male and Female Rats.

Instant cascara (IC) is a sustainable beverage obtained from dried coffee cherry pulp, rich in nutrients and bioactive compounds. The present research aimed to determine the effects of IC on general health and brain-gut axis parameters of healthy female and male rats. Wistar rats were exposed to IC (10 mg/mL) in their drinking water for 3 weeks.

Contractility of isolated colonic smooth muscle strips from rats treated with cancer chemotherapy: differential effects of cisplatin and vincristine.

Background: Certain antineoplastic drugs cause gastrointestinal disorders even after the end of treatment. Enteric neuropathy has been associated with some of these alterations. Our goal was to assess the impact of repeated treatment with cisplatin and vincristine on the contractility of circular and longitudinal muscle strips isolated from the rat colon.

New Pieces for an Old Puzzle: Approaching Parkinson's Disease from Translatable Animal Models, Gut Microbiota Modulation, and Lipidomics.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a severe neurodegenerative disease characterized by disabling motor alterations that are diagnosed at a relatively late stage in its development, and non-motor symptoms, including those affecting the gastrointestinal tract (mainly constipation), which start much earlier than the motor symptoms. Remarkably, current treatments only reduce motor symptoms, not without important drawbacks (relatively low efficiency and impactful side effects). Thus, new approaches are needed to halt PD progression and, possibly, to prevent its development, including new therapeutic strategies that target PD etiopathogeny and new biomarkers.

Radiographic assessment of the impact of sex and the circadian rhythm-dependent behaviour on gastrointestinal transit in the rat.

Relatively little is known about the influence of sex and the circadian rhythm on gastrointestinal transit. However, these factors could have an important impact on aspects such as digestion, oral absorption of drugs or the clinical manifestation of gastrointestinal diseases, among others. Remarkably, preclinical models have scarcely taken these factors into consideration.

Short-term stress significantly decreases morphine analgesia in trigeminal but not in spinal innervated areas in rats.

Plenty information exists regarding the effects of chronic stress, although few data exist on the effects of short-lasting stressors, which would mimic daily challenges. Differences in craniofacial and spinal nociception have been observed, thus those observations obtained in spinally innervated areas cannot be directly applied to the orofacial region. Although, opioids are considered amongst the most effective analgesics, their use is sometimes hampered by the constipation they induce.

Mechanisms of Chemotherapy-Induced Neurotoxicity.

Since the first clinical trials conducted after World War II, chemotherapeutic drugs have been extensively used in the clinic as the main cancer treatment either alone or as an adjuvant therapy before and after surgery. Although the use of chemotherapeutic drugs improved the survival of cancer patients, these drugs are notorious for causing many severe side effects that significantly reduce the efficacy of anti-cancer treatment and patients' quality of life. Many widely used chemotherapy drugs including platinum-based agents, taxanes, vinca alkaloids, proteasome inhibitors, and thalidomide analogs may cause direct and indirect neurotoxicity.

Cannabinoid drugs against chemotherapy-induced adverse effects: focus on nausea/vomiting, peripheral neuropathy and chemofog in animal models.

Although new drugs are being developed for cancer treatment, classical chemotherapeutic agents are still front-line therapies, despite their frequent association with severe side effects that can hamper their use. Cannabinoids may prevent or palliate some of these side effects. The aim of the present study is to review the basic research which has been conducted evaluating the effects of cannabinoid drugs in the treatment of three important side effects induced by classical chemotherapeutic agents: nausea and vomiting, neuropathic pain and cognitive impairment.

Efficacy of botulinum toxin type A in the management of masticatory myofascial pain: A retrospective clinical study.

Background: Muscular pain is the main cause of disability worldwide. Myofascial pain of orofacial origin is a frequent condition, the treatment of which is not always accomplished with traditional treatment. Botulinum toxin type A (BTA) is being studied for the treatment of this type of pain with contradicting results.

Effects of two different acute and subchronic stressors on gastrointestinal transit in the rat: A radiographic analysis.

Background: The reaction to stress is an adaptive response necessary for survival. When stressors are repeated, the organism adapts, although these adaptive responses can become dysregulated and result in disease, causing gastrointestinal (GI) disorders. Radiographic methods allow the non-invasive study of how a given factor affects GI transit in the same animal at different time points.

Changes in Fatty Acid Dietary Profile Affect the Brain-Gut Axis Functions of Healthy Young Adult Rats in a Sex-Dependent Manner.

Dietary modifications, including those affecting dietary fat and its fatty acid (FA) composition, may be involved in the development of brain-gut axis disorders, with different manifestations in males and females. Our aim was to evaluate the impact of three purified diets with different FA composition on the brain-gut axis in rats of both sexes. Male and female Wistar rats fed a cereal-based standard diet from weaning were used.

Maternal separation affects the electrophysiological properties of Aδ-fibres and nociceptive behaviours in male and female mice.

Aim: Early life adverse effects have been associated with an increased risk of suffering pain syndromes in adulthood. Although animal models are of great importance to study modifications of pain sensitivity, up to date the results obtained are contradicting due to the varied methodologies used. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to characterise, as a whole, possible modifications in visceral and somatic nociceptive responses in male and female ICR mice, submitted to two different protocols of maternal separation (MS), and possible modifications in the electrophysiological properties of peripheral nociceptive Aδ-primary afferents.

Mu-Opioid Receptors in Ganglia, But Not in Muscle, Mediate Peripheral Analgesia in Rat Muscle Pain.

Background: Previous studies have demonstrated the participation of peripheral μ-opioid receptors (MOR) in the antinociceptive effect of systemically administered morphine and loperamide in an orofacial muscle pain model, induced by hypertonic saline, but not in a spinally innervated one, in rats. In this study, we determine whether this peripheral antinociceptive effect is due to the activation of MOR localized in the muscle, ganglia, or both.

Methods: To determine the local antinociceptive effect of morphine and loperamide, 2 models of acute muscle pain (trigeminal and spinal) were used.

Characterization of the nociceptive effect of carrageenan: Masseter versus gastrocnemius.

Introduction: To better understand the pathophysiology of chronic muscle pain, there are multiple animal models that mimic different acute/chronic pain conditions, such as carrageenan injection. Our previous studies demonstrated differences between muscles of different innervation in acute pain. In this study we characterized the effect of carrageenan in 2 muscles: masseter (trigeminal innervation) and gastrocnemius (spinal innervation).

Involvement of central and peripheral cannabinoid receptors on antinociceptive effect of tetrahydrocannabinol in muscle pain.

Cannabinoid (CB) receptors have emerged as an attractive therapeutic target for pain management in recent years and the interest in the use of cannabinoids is gradually increasing, particularly in patients where conventional treatments fail. Muscle pain is a major clinical problem and new pharmacological approaches are being studied. Recently, we have demonstrated that cannabinoid synthetic agonists are useful to reduce muscular pain in two animal models, where the local administration is effective.

Contributions of peripheral and central opioid receptors to antinociception in rat muscle pain models.

Administration of hypertonic saline (HS) is an accepted model to study muscular pain. HS-induced nociceptive responses were tested in masseter, already described, and in two new pain models of spinally innervated muscles (gastrocnemius and triceps) developed in rats at our laboratory. HS administration in the masseter induced vigorous hindpaw shaking and in the gastrocnemius or triceps, paw withdrawal or flexing.