Velázquez Kandy T, Mohammad Husam, Sweitzer Sarah M
Department of Pharmacology, Physiology and Neuroscience, University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Columbia, SC 29208, USA.
Pharmacol Res. 2007 Jun;55(6):578-89. doi: 10.1016/j.phrs.2007.04.006. Epub 2007 Apr 29.
Pain is the primary reason that people seek medical care. At present, chronic unremitting pain is the third greatest health problem after heart disease and cancer. Chronic pain is an economic burden in lost wages, lost productivity, medical expenses, legal fees and compensation. Chronic pain is defined as a pain of greater than 2 months duration. It can be of inflammatory or neuropathic origin that can arise following nerve injury or in the absence of any apparent injury. Chronic pain is characterized by an altered pain perception that includes allodynia (a response to a normally non-noxious stimuli) and hyperalgesia (an exaggerated response to a normally noxious stimuli). This type of pain is often insensitive to the traditional analgesics or surgical intervention. The study of the cellular and molecular mechanisms that contribute to chronic pain are of the up-most importance for the development of a new generation of analgesic agents. Protein kinase C isozymes are under investigation as potential therapeutics for the treatment of chronic pain conditions. The anatomical localization of protein kinase C isozymes in both peripheral and central nervous system sites that process pain have made them the topic of basic science research for close to two decades. This review will outline the research to date on the involvement of protein kinase C in pain and analgesia. In addition, this review will try to synthesize these works to begin to develop a comprehensive mechanistic understanding of how protein kinase C may function as a master regulator of the peripheral and central sensitization that underlies many chronic pain conditions.
疼痛是人们寻求医疗护理的主要原因。目前，慢性持续性疼痛是仅次于心脏病和癌症的第三大健康问题。慢性疼痛在工资损失、生产力丧失、医疗费用、法律费用和赔偿方面构成经济负担。慢性疼痛被定义为持续时间超过2个月的疼痛。它可能源于炎症或神经病变，可在神经损伤后出现，也可能在没有任何明显损伤的情况下出现。慢性疼痛的特征是疼痛感知改变，包括痛觉过敏（对正常无害刺激的反应）和痛觉超敏（对正常有害刺激的过度反应）。这种类型的疼痛通常对传统镇痛药或手术干预不敏感。研究导致慢性疼痛的细胞和分子机制对于开发新一代镇痛药至关重要。蛋白激酶C同工酶正在作为治疗慢性疼痛病症的潜在疗法进行研究。蛋白激酶C同工酶在处理疼痛的外周和中枢神经系统部位的解剖定位使其成为近二十年来基础科学研究的主题。本综述将概述迄今为止关于蛋白激酶C在疼痛和镇痛中的作用的研究。此外，本综述将尝试综合这些研究成果，以开始全面理解蛋白激酶C如何作为许多慢性疼痛病症基础的外周和中枢敏化的主要调节因子发挥作用。
