The Role of the Insular Cortex and Serotonergic System in the Modulation of Long-Lasting Nociception.

The insular cortex (IC) is a brain region that both receives relevant sensory information and is responsible for emotional and cognitive processes, allowing the perception of sensory information. The IC has connections with multiple sites of the pain matrix, including cortico-cortical interactions with the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and top-down connections with sites of descending pain inhibition. We explored the changes in the extracellular release of serotonin (5HT) and its major metabolite, 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5HIAA), after inflammation was induced by carrageenan injection.

The nucleus accumbens dopamine increase, typically triggered by sexual stimuli in male rats, is no longer produced when animals are sexually inhibited due to sexual satiety.

Rationale: Exposure of male rats to an inaccessible receptive female and copulation increases dopamine (DA) levels in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc). Males copulating to satiety become sexually inhibited and most of them do not display sexual activity when presented with a sexually receptive female 24 h later. This inhibitory state can be pharmacologically reversed.

Genome-wide cancer-specific chromatin accessibility patterns derived from archival processed xenograft tumors.

Chromatin accessibility states that influence gene expression and other nuclear processes can be altered in disease. The constellation of transcription factors and chromatin regulatory complexes in cells results in characteristic patterns of chromatin accessibility. The study of these patterns in tissues has been limited because existing chromatin accessibility assays are ineffective for archival formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues.

Neuropathic and inflammatory antinociceptive effects and electrocortical changes produced by Salvia divinorum in rats.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Salvia divinorum is a medicinal plant traditionally used in hallucinogenic ethnopharmacological practices and for its analgesic and antinflammatory properties. Its active compounds include diterpenes known as salvinorins which act as potent κ opioid receptor agonists.

Aim Of The Study: Given its effects in acute animal models of pain, as well as its antinflammatory attributes, we decided to investigate the analgesic effects of an SD extract in neuropathic (sciatic loose nerve ligature) and inflammatory (intra plantar carrageenan) pain models in rats.

TRH injected into the nucleus accumbens shell releases dopamine and reduces feeding motivation in rats.

The thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH), an anorexigenic factor that reduces food intake in food-restricted animals, may be involved in motivation for food. Injected centrally, TRH impairs acquisition of food-rewarded behavior. Through the TRH-R1 receptors, TRH injected in the nucleus accumbens increases dopamine content-perhaps the mechanism by which the peptide modulates food motivation.

Inflammatory nociception responses do not vary with age, but diminish with the pain history.

Some of the relevant factors that must be considered when dealing with old age include its growing numbers in the general population and pain contention in this age group. In this sense, it is important to study whether antinociceptive responses change with age. To elucidate this point, persistent pain in animals is the preferred model.

Taurine enhances antinociception produced by a COX-2 inhibitor in an inflammatory pain model.

The temporal activation of the sensory systems, especially in pain, determines intermediate states that define the future of the response to sensory stimulation. In this work, we interfere pharmacologically with those states that produce peripheral and central sensitisation after an acute inflammatory process, inhibiting at the periphery the COX-2 with celecoxib and using taurine (glycine A receptor agonist) for central pain relief. We tested the paw withdrawal reflex latencies to thermo- and mechanonociception after the induction of an acute inflammatory process with carrageenan.

Inflammatory nociception diminishes dopamine release and increases dopamine D2 receptor mRNA in the rat's insular cortex.

Background: The insular cortex (IC) receives somatosensory afferent input and has been related to nociceptive input. It has dopaminergic terminals and D1 (D1R) -excitatory- and D2 (D2R) -inhibitory- receptors. D2R activation with a selective agonist, as well as D1R blockade with antagonists in the IC, diminish neuropathic nociception in a nerve transection model.

Insular cortex lesion diminishes neuropathic and inflammatory pain-like behaviours.

Injury to the insular cortex in humans produces a lack of appropriate response to pain. Also, there is controversial evidence on the lateralization of pain modulation. The aim of this study was to test the effect of insular cortex lesions in three models of pain in the rat.

Pharmacokinetic study of carbamazepine and its carbamazepine 10,11-epoxide metabolite in a group of female epileptic patients under chronic treatment.

Background: Although epileptic crises are equally frequent in women and men, several factors cause female epileptics to present a series of gender-specific problems. To date, few studies have been published on the kinetics of carbamazepine (CBZ) and carbamazepine 10,11-epoxide (CBZ-E) active metabolite in a Mexican population, and no information for epileptic women of reproductive age is available. The aim of the present work was to study the pharmacokinetic behavior of this group of women during steady state.