Researchers from the University of Cádiz (UCA), who are integrated in the Neuropsychopharmacology and Psychobiology group and belonging to Institute of Biomedical Research and Innovation of Cádiz (INIBICA) and Center for Research in Network for Mental Health (CIBERSAM), identified a connection of specific neurons in the brain that is responsible for anxiety and memory disorders in patients with chronic pain.
The UCA said these investigations were carried out in an experimental model of chronic pain with nerve injury, known as neuropathic pain. The results of the study, led by Professors Esther Berrocoso and Juan Antonio Micó, were published in the prestigious journal Biological Psychiatry, where the post-doctoral researchers Meritxell Llorca Torralba and Irene Suárez Pereira sign as first authors.
To fully understand the significance of this finding, it should be noted that pain is a symptom in many diseases; and that when it is chronic, is considered disease by itself. Likewise, it is a risk factor for developing disorders such as anxiety and/or mood alterations, as well as cognitive impairment and memory loss. Currently, it is known that many patients with chronic pain are susceptible to mental illness. This is why it is necessary to deepen the knowledge of why these symptoms occur.
The UCA said that for some time it was known that in the brain there is a place known as locus coeruleus (LC), which is connected with another, tonsil, which has an important role in controlling emotional situations. These two areas of the brain have importance in the endogenous regulation of pain and in other emotional and cognitive situations. The research was based on knowing if there could be a connection between them, in connection of why patients with chronic pain suffer from anxiety and memory disorders.
In the study published by the UCA group, using pharmacological and other innovative approaches such as pharmacogenetics (designer receptor exclusively activated by designer drugs, DREADD), it was shown that disrupting the connection between these two structures normalized anxious responses and learning that were characteristic of chronic pain.
These results suggest that in chronic pain a cognitive disorder is triggered through the connection of these two structures (specifically the basolateral LC-tonsil route) and this activation affects the way in which the brain of patients with chronic pain process aversive stimuli probably causing and maintaining a state of anxiety.
The study conducted by the UCA delved into finding a pharmacological medium that was capable of reversing these situations and that could be useful to patients with chronic pain who suffer anxiety and these memory disorders at the same time. Thus, “it was observed that some drugs, already known, that affect the noradrenergic system, responded to these expectations. Now it will be necessary to investigate more selective drugs that act specifically on these processes,” the authors said.
Source: Agencia ID
