Publication

Chronic pain is under-managed in individuals over 65 years of age due to a dearth of knowledge regarding the impact of age on opioid efficacy in the elderly. We have previously shown that advanced age and sex alter morphine modulation of persistent inflammatory pain (induced by intraplantar administration of Complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA)), such that morphine potency is highest in adult male rats (2mos), with EC50 values 2-fold higher in aged males (18mos) and females regardless of age.

Non-invasive electrical stimulation methods are often used in experimental settings to investigate the possible modulation of antinociceptive mechanisms. Studies using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) typically incorporate a fade-in, short-stimulation, fade-out sham (placebo) protocol, which is assumed to be indistinct from a 10-30min active protocol on the scalp. However, many studies report that participants can dissociate active stimulation from sham, even during low-intensity 1mA currents.

IEIP and DOMS are two types of muscle pain induced by exercise. IEIP occurs during whereas DOMS appears days after exercise. Acid sensing ion channels (ASICs) expressed in muscle afferents, play a role in different pain conditions. ASICs are regulated via chemicals released during intense muscle contraction and microinjuries. Recently, we showed that ASICs are required for IEIP. Here, we tested if ASICs are also required for DOMS. Wild type (WT) and ASIC3-/- mice were divided into control and exercise groups.

Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic pain condition characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain with significant movement-evoked pain. Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), a non-pharmacological treatment, is efficacious for reduction of pain and fatigue in FM. While physical therapists are trained in the use of TENS, it is an underutilized tool in physical therapy (PT) clinics.

Age is the greatest risk factor for Parkinson's disease (PD) which causes progressive loss of dopamine (DA) neurons, with males at greater risk than females. Intriguingly, some DA neurons are more resilient to degeneration than others. Increasing evidence suggests that vesicular glutamate transporter (VGLUT) expression in DA neurons plays a role in this selective vulnerability. We investigated the role of DA neuron VGLUT in sex- and age-related differences in DA neuron vulnerability using the genetically tractable Drosophila model.

Background: The amygdala is responsible for encoding valence, the biological value of aversive and rewarding stimuli; it plays a critical role in the formation and storage of emotional memories, assessment of threat-related stimuli, and fear consolidation. As a step toward identifying how specific cell populations contribute to these functions, we sought to systematically identify the cell types of the human amygdala, the genes (mRNAs) expressed by each cell type, and their relationships to cell types in mouse and marmoset amygdala.

Interventions to disrupt memory reconsolidation have held promise for the treatment of stress- and anxiety-related disorders. In the present study, we tested whether an intervention based on these principles, called memory updating, could be adapted for reward-seeking behaviors. Non-treatment seeking tobacco smokers were exposed to smoking cues and/or stress, two stimuli known to trigger smoking. It was predicted that exposure to a stress task would enhance the cues’ motivational salience and yield greater susceptibility to the memory updating procedure.

Background: Preclinical studies indicate opioid administration evokes pro-inflammatory responses in both the periphery and brain. Opioid-induced pro-inflammatory responses influence both appetitive and dysphoric addiction processes and thus, may influence the development of opioid use disorder (OUD) and/or perpetuate continued opioid use among OUD patients.

The motivation to eat is not only shaped by nutrition but also competed by external stimuli including pain. How the mouse hypothalamus, the feeding regulation center, integrates nociceptive inputs to modulate feeding is unclear. Within the key nociception relay center parabrachial nucleus (PBN), we demonstrated that neurons projecting to the lateral hypothalamus (LHPBN) are nociceptive yet distinct from danger-encoding central amygdala-projecting (CeAPBN) neurons.

Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) can capture the transcriptional profile of thousands of individual cells concurrently from complex tissues and with remarkable resolution. Either with the goal of seeking information about distinct cell subtypes or responses to a stimulus, the approach has provided robust information and promoted impressive advances in cardiovascular research. The goal of this review is to highlight strategies and approaches to leverage this technology and bypass potential caveats related to evaluation of the vascular cells.