Unravelling Spinal Circuits of Pain and Mechanical Allodynia.
How do spinal circuits mediating tactile sensation and pain get entangled to evoke allodynia, i.e., pain sensation, in response to a normally innocuous stimulus? Recent breakthroughs are now closing this long-standing, critical gap. VGLUT3-expressing neurons and their polysynaptic connectivity to calretinin-expressing neurons are now identified as key determinants of the spinal circuitry underlying mechanical allodynia.
Pharmacology Institute, Medical Faculty Heidelberg, Heidelberg University, Im Neuenheimer Feld 366, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
Vijayan
V
Gangadharan
Pharmacology Institute, Medical Faculty Heidelberg, Heidelberg University, Im Neuenheimer Feld 366, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany. Electronic address: rohini.kuner@pharma.uni-heidelberg.de.
Rohini
R
Kuner
D026922:Amino Acid Transport Systems, Acidic / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D000818:Animals; D006930:Hyperalgesia / Q000378:metabolism*; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000378:metabolism*; D010146:Pain / Q000378:metabolism*; D066148:Spinal Cord Dorsal Horn / Q000378:metabolism*; D014110:Touch
D026922:Amino Acid Transport Systems, Acidic