Publications by authors named "Marta Diaz-Delcastillo"

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a clonal plasma cell proliferative malignancy characterized by a debilitating bone disease. Osteolytic destruction, a hallmark of MM, is driven by increased osteoclast number and exacerbated bone resorption, primarily fueled by the excessive production of RANKL, the master regulator of osteoclast formation, within the tumor niche. We previously reported that osteocytes, the most abundant cells in the bone niche, promote tumor progression and support MM bone disease by overproducing RANKL.

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Breast cancer bone metastases increase fracture risk and are a major cause of morbidity and mortality among women. Upon colonization by tumor cells, the bone microenvironment undergoes profound reprogramming to support cancer progression, which disrupts the balance between osteoclasts and osteoblasts and leads to bone lesions. A deeper understanding of the processes mediating this reprogramming could help develop interventions for treating patients with bone metastases.

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Chronic pain is a complex, debilitating, and escalating health problem worldwide, impacting 1 in 5 adults. Current treatment is compromised by dose-limiting side effects, including high abuse liability, loss of ability to function socially and professionally, fatigue, drowsiness, and apathy. PICK1 has emerged as a promising target for the treatment of chronic pain conditions.

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The diagnosis of multiple myeloma requires detection of paraproteinemia and confirmation of monoclonal bone marrow infiltration, along with signs of end-organ damage. Despite the increasing prevalence, serum paraproteinemia is not routinely measured. We examined the relationship between alterations in routine hematological parameters and the development of paraproteinemia in a case-control study.

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Breast cancer bone metastases increase fracture risk and are a major cause of morbidity and mortality among women. Upon colonization by tumor cells, the bone microenvironment undergoes profound reprogramming to support cancer progression that disrupts the balance between osteoclasts and osteoblasts, leading to bone lesions. Whether such reprogramming affects matrix-embedded osteocytes remains poorly understood.

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In this forensic case report, we present autopsy findings from a young male in his thirties who had been self-injecting paraffin oil into his upper extremities 8 years prior to death. The injections induced an inflammatory response, leading to granuloma formation. This, in turn, resulted in severe hypercalcemia.

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Multiple Myeloma (MM) is the second most common hematological malignancy and is characterized by clonal expansion of malignant plasma cells in the bone marrow. In spite of recent advances in the field of MM, the disease has remained incurable. MM is preceded by a premalignant state known as monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS), with a risk of progression to MM of 1% per year.

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Osteolytic bone disease is present in about 80% of patients with multiple myeloma at the time of diagnosis. Managing bone disease in patients with multiple myeloma is a challenge and requires a multi-faceted treatment approach with medication, surgery, and radiation. The established treatments with intravenous or subcutaneous antiresorptives can cause debilitating adverse events for patients, mainly osteonecrosis of the jaw, which, traditionally, has been difficult to manage.

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Background: Skeletal stem/progenitor cells (SSPCs) in the bone marrow can differentiate into osteoblasts or adipocytes in response to microenvironmental signalling input, including hormonal signalling. Glucocorticoids (GC) are corticosteroid hormones that promote adipogenic differentiation and are endogenously increased in patients with Cushing´s syndrome (CS). Here, we investigate bone marrow adiposity changes in response to endogenous or exogenous GC increases.

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Article Synopsis
  • Thigmotaxis is a natural behavior in rodents that helps them avoid predators and is influenced by injury, disease, and pain relief treatments.
  • Systematic review of 165 studies found that thigmotaxis increases in painful conditions but decreases with analgesic drugs in rats and mice, although its effectiveness may vary across different injury models.
  • The study faced challenges in assessing methodological quality and bias, leading to inconclusive insights on data variation and revealing inconsistencies in the correlation between thigmotaxis and related behaviors.
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Multiple myeloma (MM) is a neoplasia of B plasma cells that often induces bone pain. However, the mechanisms underlying myeloma-induced bone pain (MIBP) are mostly unknown. Using a syngeneic MM mouse model, we show that periosteal nerve sprouting of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) and growth associated protein 43 (GAP43) fibers occurs concurrent to the onset of nociception and its blockade provides transient pain relief.

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Article Synopsis
  • Multiple myeloma (MM) is an incurable cancer of the bone marrow that causes bone damage due to increased osteoclast activity and decreased osteoblast activity.
  • A new oral proteasome inhibitor called ixazomib is being tested for its effects on bone health in MM patients who have stable disease and multiple osteolytic lesions.
  • Early results from a clinical trial show that ixazomib may reduce bone resorption and increase bone volume, even though overall bone formation rates remained unchanged.
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  • A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to explore how persistent pain models and analgesics influence burrowing behavior in laboratory rodents.
  • The analysis included 45 studies, primarily using male rats, and found that conditions like somatic inflammation significantly reduced burrowing behavior, while certain analgesics improved it.
  • Results indicated a weak correlation between burrowing behavior and limb withdrawal reflexes, suggesting that burrowing could be a valuable measure for assessing pain-related behavior in research.
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Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an unremitting neurodegenerative disorder characterized by cerebral amyloid-β (Aβ) accumulation and gradual decline in cognitive function. Changes in brain energy metabolism arise in the preclinical phase of AD, suggesting an important metabolic component of early AD pathology. Neurons and astrocytes function in close metabolic collaboration, which is essential for the recycling of neurotransmitters in the synapse.

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Multiple myeloma (MM) is a bone marrow neoplasia that causes bone pain in 70% patients. While preclinical models of MM have suggested that both nerve sprouting and nerve injury may be causative for the pain, there is a lack of clinical data. Thus, the primary aims of this clinical study are: (1) to provide a deep characterization of the subjective experience of pain and quality of life in MM patients; (2) to investigate disturbances in the bone innervation of MM patients.

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Article Synopsis
  • A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted on 374 studies examining the effectiveness of cannabinoids and related substances for pain relief in animal models.
  • The majority of the studies focused on male rodents and primarily measured pain relief by observing changes in hypersensitivity related to limb withdrawal.
  • While cannabinoid treatments were generally effective in reducing pain behaviors in various pain models, the overall quality of the studies was questioned due to low reporting standards for minimizing bias, suggesting future research should improve methodology and behavioral assessment.
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Alzheimer's disease (AD) leads to cerebral accumulation of insoluble amyloid-β plaques causing synaptic dysfunction and neuronal death. Neurons rely on astrocyte-derived glutamine for replenishment of the amino acid neurotransmitter pools. Perturbations of astrocyte glutamine synthesis have been described in AD, but whether this functionally affects neuronal neurotransmitter synthesis is not known.

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Article Synopsis
  • Multiple myeloma is a rare bone marrow cancer affecting about 6 in 100,000 people each year in Europe and currently has no cure.
  • New treatments, including stem cell transplants and monoclonal antibodies, have improved long-term survival rates, but many patients experience severe bone pain that negatively impacts their quality of life.
  • The review highlights the need for better understanding of pain mechanisms in myeloma, the importance of standardized assessments for patient experiences, and potential new pain management strategies from animal studies.
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The dissemination of cancer to bone can cause significant cancer-induced bone pain (CIBP), severely impairing the patient's quality of life. Several rodent models have been developed to explore the nociceptive mechanisms of CIBP, including intratibial inoculation of breast carcinoma cells in syngeneic Sprague Dawley rats. Using this model, we investigated whether resident spinal microglial cells are involved in the transmission and modulation of CIBP, a long-debated disease feature.

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Osteomalacia is a bone-demineralizing disease of adulthood, often caused by hypovitaminosis D. Current animal models of the disease mimic osteomalacia as a consequence of gastric bypass or toxic exposure to metals, but a relevant model of diet-induced osteomalacia is lacking. For that purpose, 7-month-old female Sprague Dawley rats were randomly assigned into 2 weight-stratified groups and maintained for 4 months on synthetic diets containing negligible or normal levels of vitamin D.

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Bone pain is a serious and debilitating symptom of multiple myeloma (MM) that impairs the quality of life of patients. The underlying mechanisms of the pain are unknown and understudied, and there is a need for immunocompetent preclinical models of myeloma-induced bone pain. The aim of this study was to provide the first in-depth behavioral characterization of an immunocompetent mouse model of MM presenting the clinical disease features: osteolytic bone disease and bone pain.

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Background And Purpose: Cancer-induced bone pain remains inadequately controlled, and current standard of care analgesics is accompanied by several side effects. Nociceptin/orphanin FQ peptide (NOP) receptor agonists have demonstrated broad analgesic properties in rodent neuropathic and inflammatory pain models. Here, we investigate the analgesic potential of NOP receptor activation in a rodent cancer-induced bone pain model.

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Selective pharmacological tool compounds are invaluable for understanding the functions of the various ionotropic glutamate receptor subtypes. For the kainate receptors, these compounds are few. Here we have synthesized nine novel quinoxaline-2,3-diones with substitutions in the 7-position to investigate the structure-activity relationship at kainate and α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) receptors.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study investigates how cancer-induced bone pain affects burrowing behavior in mice and rats, which is a natural behavior sensitive to chronic pain.
  • - After being inoculated with breast cancer cells, the rodents exhibited decreased bone density and reduced limb use, confirming the presence of the disease.
  • - The results show that burrowing performance diminished over time in both models, suggesting that burrowing tests are valuable for evaluating cancer-induced bone pain in research.
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