«Investigation of sexual dimorphism in an animal model of neuropathic pain: role of the endocannabinoid system».
El próximo día 6 de octubre a las 12 horas en el Salón de Actos del Instituto de Neurociencias de Castilla y León tendrá lugar el primer Seminario del curso 2023/2024. El encargado de impartir el seminario será el Dr. Álvaro Llorente Berzal (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9787-2619) de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.
Abstract:
Sex differences in neuropathic pain have increasingly become evident in recent decades. Most
preclinical studies aiming to understand sex differences in the neurobiology of pain have
focused on studying the influence of gonadal hormones and neuroimmune system. However,
the lack of effectiveness and sex-specific responses to a wide variety of pharmacological tools
suggests that additional neural substrates may drive sex differences in neuropathic pain. The
endogenous cannabinoid system (ECS) plays a pivotal role in the modulation of nociception.
Furthermore, sexual dimorphism in cannabinoid-induced analgesia has been reported.
However, the relevance of sex differences in ECS physiology to pain is poorly understood.
In a series of experiments, we observed that sex-specific alterations in the ECS promote 1)
sexual dimorphism in nociception and pain-related comorbidities, and 2) a sexually dimorphic
efficacy of cannabinoid drugs as analgesic agents against neuropathic pain at a systemic at
intracerebral level.
Investigation of such sex-dimorphic interactions will facilitate an improved understanding of
the pathophysiology of chronic neuropathic pain, targeting endocannabinoid-based pain-
related biomarkers and developing more effective analgesics based on the ECS in males and
females.
Related Bibliography:
Noya-Riobó MV, Miguel CÁ, Soriano DB, Brumovsky PR, Villar MJ, Coronel MF. 2023. Changes
in the expression of endocannabinoid system components in an experimental model of
chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathic pain: Evaluation of sex-related differences. Exp
Neurol. 359:114232. doi: 10.1016/j.expneurol.2022.114232.
Llorente-Berzal A, McGowan F, Gaspar JC, Rea K, Roche M, Finn DP. 2022. Sexually Dimorphic
Expression of Fear-conditioned Analgesia in Rats and Associated Alterations in the
Endocannabinoid System in the Periaqueductal Grey. Neuroscience. 480:117-130. doi:
10.1016/j.neuroscience.2021.11.005.
Boullon L, Finn DP, Llorente-Berzal Á. 2021. Sex Differences in a Rat Model of Peripheral
Neuropathic Pain and Associated Levels of Endogenous Cannabinoid Ligands. Front Pain Res
(Lausanne). 2:673638. doi: 10.3389/fpain.2021.673638.
Blanton HL, Barnes RC, McHann MC, Bilbrey JA, Wilkerson JL, Guindon J. 2021. Sex differences
and the endocannabinoid system in pain. Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 202:173107. doi:
10.1016/j.pbb.2021.173107.