Repeated amphetamine treatment alters spinal magnetic resonance signals and pain sensitivity in mice

Baseball injuries in adolescent athletes with ADHD

At the intersection of injury-prone sports such as baseball and conditions like ADHD that affect all aspects of life, there is a lack of research. This limits the availability of preventive care programs designed to target potential risks and promote a safe experience. In this retrospective cohort study, we assess the frequency of injury in youth baseball players with and without ADHD, along with further investigation into how treatment with stimulant medication may modify risk factors. The data for this study were obtained in deidentified, aggregate format from the TriNetX research database. We identified all patients under 25 years of age with a designation of baseball activity. Within this population, we separated patients by presence or absence of ADHD diagnosis, and then by stimulant usage. The studied outcomes were injuries commonly occurring in baseball, including fractures, sprains, and specific injury patterns. We identified 17,710 patients under 25 years old with designated baseball activity, 1,183 of which had a diagnosis of ADHD. Of these, 511 had a history of stimulant medication and 470 had no history of stimulant use. For most events (i.e., injuries), there were no statistical differences between cohorts. The overall ADHD cohort significantly differed from the Not ADHD cohort in 3 events: "thorax, abdomen, pelvis injuries," "ankle sprain," and "concussion." When athletes with ADHD received treatment, this trend reversed for select injuries: "any fracture", "head or neck injuries", "upper limb injuries", and "lower limb injuries" were less likely in ADHD athletes on stimulants. Given the ongoing debate around stimulant use in athletics, our study is relevant to many patients, providers, and the baseball community.

Excess intracellular ATP causes neuropathic pain following spinal cord injury

Intractable neuropathic pain following spinal cord injury (NP-SCI) reduces a patient's quality of life. Excessive release of ATP into the extracellular space evokes neuroinflammation via purinergic receptor. Neuroinflammation plays an important role in the initiation and maintenance of NP. However, little is known about whether or not extracellular ATP cause NP-SCI. We found in the present study that excess of intracellular ATP at the lesion site evokes at-level NP-SCI. No significant differences in the body weight, locomotor function, or motor behaviors were found in groups that were negative and positive for at-level allodynia. The intracellular ATP level at the lesion site was significantly higher in the allodynia-positive mice than in the allodynia-negative mice. A metabolome analysis revealed that there were no significant differences in the ATP production or degradation between allodynia-negative and allodynia-positive mice. Dorsal horn neurons in allodynia mice were found to be inactivated in the resting state, suggesting that decreased ATP consumption due to neural inactivity leads to a build-up of intracellular ATP. In contrast to the findings in the resting state, mechanical stimulation increased the neural activity of dorsal horn and extracellular ATP release at lesion site. The forced production of intracellular ATP at the lesion site in non-allodynia mice induced allodynia. The inhibition of P2X4 receptors in allodynia mice reduced allodynia. These results suggest that an excess buildup of intracellular ATP in the resting state causes at-level NP-SCI as a result of the extracellular release of ATP with mechanical stimulation.

Manganese-enhanced MRI depicts a reduction in brain responses to nociception upon mTOR inhibition in chronic pain rats

Neuropathic pain induced by a nerve injury can lead to chronic pain. Recent studies have reported hyperactive neural activities in the nociceptive-related area of the brain as a result of chronic pain. Although cerebral activities associated with hyperalgesia and allodynia in chronic pain models are difficult to represent with functional imaging techniques, advances in manganese (Mn)-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MEMRI) could facilitate the visualization of the activation of pain-specific neural responses in the cerebral cortex. In order to investigate the alleviation of pain nociception by mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) modulation, we observed cerebrocortical excitability changes and compared regional Mn²⁺ enhancement after mTOR inhibition. At day 7 after nerve injury, drugs were applied into the intracortical area, and drug (Vehicle, Torin1, and XL388) effects were compared within groups using MEMRI. Therein, signal intensities of the insular cortex (IC), primary somatosensory cortex of the hind limb region, motor cortex 1/2, and anterior cingulate cortex regions were significantly reduced after application of mTOR inhibitors (Torin1 and XL388). Furthermore, rostral-caudal analysis of the IC indicated that the rostral region of the IC was more strongly associated with pain perception than the caudal region. Our data suggest that MEMRI can depict pain-related signal changes in the brain and that mTOR inhibition is closely correlated with pain modulation in chronic pain rats.

Manganese-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging of the spinal cord in rats with formalin-induced pain

Manganese-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MEMRI) is based on neuronal activity-dependent manganese uptake, and provides information about nervous system function. However, systematic studies of pain processing using MEMRI are rare, and few investigations of pain using MEMRI have been performed in the spinal cord. Herein, we investigated the pain dependence of manganese ions administered in the rat spinal cord. MnCl₂ was administered into the spinal cord via an intrathecal catheter before formalin injection into the right hind paw (50 μL of 5% formalin). The duration of flinching behavior was recorded and analyzed to measure formalin-induced pain. After the behavioral test, rats were sacrificed with an overdose of urethane (50 mg/kg), and spine samples were extracted and post-fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde solution. The samples were stored in 30% sucrose until molecular resonance (MR) scanning was performed. In axial Mn²⁺ enhancement images of the spinal cord, Mn²⁺ levels were found to be significantly elevated on the ipsilateral side of the spinal cord in formalin-injected rats. To confirm pain-dependent Mn enhancement in the spinal cord, c-Fos expression was analyzed, and was found to be increased in the formalin-injected rats. These results indicate that MEMRI is useful for functional analysis of the spinal cord under pain conditions. The gray matter appears to be the focus of intense paramagnetic signals. MEMRI may provide an effective technique for visualizing activity-dependent patterns in the spinal cord.

Manganese-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Overview and Central Nervous System Applications With a Focus on Neurodegeneration

Manganese-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MEMRI) rose to prominence in the 1990s as a sensitive approach to high contrast imaging. Following the discovery of manganese conductance through calcium-permeable channels, MEMRI applications expanded to include functional imaging in the central nervous system (CNS) and other body systems. MEMRI has since been employed in the investigation of physiology in many animal models and in humans. Here, we review historical perspectives that follow the evolution of applied MRI research into MEMRI with particular focus on its potential toxicity. Furthermore, we discuss the more current in vivo investigative uses of MEMRI in CNS investigations and the brief but decorated clinical usage of chelated manganese compound mangafodipir in humans.

Cocaine-induced locomotor sensitization in rats correlates with nucleus accumbens activity on manganese-enhanced MRI

A long-standing goal of substance abuse research has been to link drug-induced behavioral outcomes with the activity of specific brain regions to understand the neurobiology of addiction behaviors and to search for drug-able targets. Here, we tested the hypothesis that cocaine produces locomotor (behavioral) sensitization that correlates with increased calcium channel-mediated neuroactivity in brain regions linked with drug addiction, such as the nucleus accumbens (NAC), anterior striatum (AST) and hippocampus, as measured using manganese-enhanced MRI (MEMRI). Rats were treated with cocaine for 5 days, followed by a 2-day drug-free period. The following day, locomotor sensitization was quantified as a metric of cocaine-induced neuroplasticity in the presence of manganese. Immediately following behavioral testing, rats were examined for changes in calcium channel-mediated neuronal activity in the NAC, AST, hippocampus and temporalis muscle, which was associated with behavioral sensitization using MEMRI. Cocaine significantly increased locomotor activity and produced behavioral sensitization compared with saline treatment of control rats. A significant increase in MEMRI signal intensity was determined in the NAC, but not AST or hippocampus, of cocaine-treated rats compared with saline-treated control rats. Cocaine did not increase signal intensity in the temporalis muscle. Notably, in support of our hypothesis, behavior was significantly and positively correlated with MEMRI signal intensity in the NAC. As neuronal uptake of manganese is regulated by calcium channels, these results indicate that MEMRI is a powerful research tool to study neuronal activity in freely behaving animals and to guide new calcium channel-based therapies for the treatment of cocaine abuse and dependence.

Manganese-Enhanced MRI: Biological Applications in Neuroscience

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an excellent non-invasive tool to investigate biological systems. The administration of the paramagnetic divalent ion manganese (Mn²⁺) enhances MRI contrast in vivo. Due to similarities between Mn²⁺ and calcium (Ca²⁺), the premise of manganese-enhanced MRI (MEMRI) is that the former may enter neurons and other excitable cells through voltage-gated Ca²⁺ channels. As such, MEMRI has been used to trace neuronal pathways, define morphological boundaries, and study connectivity in morphological and functional imaging studies. In this article, we provide a brief overview of MEMRI and discuss recently published data to illustrate the usefulness of this method, particularly in animal models.