title: Metabolomics implicates altered sphingolipids in chronic pain of neuropathic origin.
abstract: Neuropathic pain is a debilitating condition for which the development of effective treatments has been limited by an incomplete understanding of its chemical basis. We show by using untargeted metabolomics that sphingomyelin-ceramide metabolism is altered in the dorsal horn of rats with neuropathic pain and that the upregulated, endogenous metabolite N,N-dimethylsphingosine induces mechanical hypersensitivity in vivo. These results demonstrate the utility of metabolomics to implicate unexplored biochemical pathways in disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, USA.
authors.forename: Gary J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Patti
authors.forename: Oscar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Yanes
authors.forename: Leah P
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Shriver
authors.forename: Jean-Phillipe
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Courade
authors.forename: Ralf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tautenhahn
authors.forename: Marianne
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Manchester
authors.forename: Gary
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Siuzdak
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002518:Ceramides / Q000378:metabolism; D002908:Chronic Disease; D059350:Chronic Pain / Q000378:metabolism*; D055432:Metabolomics; D009437:Neuralgia / Q000378:metabolism*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D013107:Sphingolipids / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D002518:Ceramides; D013107:Sphingolipids