Melatonin Improves Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Attenuates Neuropathic Pain by Regulating SIRT1 in Dorsal Root Ganglions

Interleukin-18 in chronic pain: Focus on pathogenic mechanisms and potential therapeutic targets

Chronic pain has been proven to be an independent disease, other than an accompanying symptom of certain diseases. Interleukin-18 (IL-18), a pro-inflammatory cytokine with pleiotropic biological effects, participates in immune modulation, inflammatory response, tumor growth, as well as the process of chronic pain. Compelling evidence suggests that IL-18 is upregulated in the occurrence of chronic pain. Antagonism or inhibition of IL-18 expression can alleviate the occurrence and development of chronic pain. And IL-18 is located in microglia, while IL-18R is mostly located in astrocytes in the spinal cord. This indicates that the interaction between microglia and astrocytes mediated by the IL-18/IL-18R axis is involved in the occurrence of chronic pain. In this review, we described the role and mechanism of IL-18 in different types of chronic pain. This review provides strong evidence that IL-18 is a potential therapeutic target in pain management.

Effects of Cyfluthrin Exposure on Neurobehaviour, Hippocampal Tissue and Synaptic Plasticity in Wistar Rats

This experiment was conducted to study the effects of Cyfluthrin (Cy) exposure on neurobehaviour, hippocampal tissue and synaptic plasticity in Wistar rats. First, it was found that high-dose Cy exposure could cause nerve injury, resulting in symptoms such as deficits in learning and memory ability, spatial exploration and autonomic motor function. Moreover, it was found that medium- and high-dose Cy exposure could cause an abnormal release of the neurotransmitter Glu. Second, brain tissue pathology showed that the middle and high doses of Cy caused tissue deformation, reduced the number of hippocampal puramidal cells, caused a disorder of these cells, decreased the number of Nissl bodies, and caused pyknosis of the hippocampal cell nuclear membrane and serious damage to organelles, indicating that exposure to these doses of Cy may cause hippocampal tissue damage in rats. Third, as the exposure dose increased, morphological changes in hippocampal synapses, including blurred synaptic spaces, a decreased number of synaptic vesicles and a decreased number of synapses, became more obvious. Moreover, the expression levels of the key synaptic proteins PSD-95 and SYP also decreased in a dose-dependent manner, indicating obvious synaptic damage. Finally, the study found that medium and high doses of Cy could upregulate the expression of A2AR in the hippocampus and that the expression levels of inflammatory factors and apoptosis-related proteins increased in a dose-dependent manner. Moreover, the expression of A2AR mRNA was correlated with neurobehavioural indicators and the levels of inflammatory factors, synaptic plasticity-related factors and apoptosis-related factors, suggesting that Cy may cause nerve damage in rats and that this effect is closely related to A2AR.