title: Neural Mechanisms Underlying Anxiety-Chronic Pain Interactions.
abstract: Chronic pain is a major medical problem that is resistant to conventional medical intervention. It also causes emotional changes such as anxiety and fear. Furthermore, anxiety or fear often enhances the suffering of pain. Based on recent studies, I propose chronic anxiety triggered by injury or chronic pain is mediated through presynaptic long-term potentiation (LTP) in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a key cortical region for pain perception. Conversely, NMDA receptor-dependent postsynaptic LTP plays a more important role in behavioral sensitization in chronic pain. Thus, postsynaptic and presynaptic LTP in ACC neurons are likely the key cellular mechanisms for causing chronic pain and its associated anxiety, respectively. This suggests potential targets for treating chronic pain and related anxiety.
authors.affiliation: Center for Neuron and Disease, Frontier Institutes of Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, 710049, China; Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, 1 King's College Circle, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A8, Canada; Centre for the study of Pain, University of Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A8, Canada. Electronic address: minzhuo10@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhuo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001007:Anxiety / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology; D059350:Chronic Pain / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D017774:Long-Term Potentiation / Q000502:physiology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*