Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, United States.
Experimental Animals Breeding and Research Center, Faculty of Medicine, Uludag University, Bursa, Turkey.
Curr Neuropharmacol. 2018;16(4):415-425. doi: 10.2174/1570159X15666170818102108.
Nicotine and nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) have been explored for the past three decades as targets for pain control. The aim of this review is to introduce readers particularly to α7 nAChRs in a perspective of pain and its modulation.
Developments for α7 nAChR modulators and recent animal studies related to pain are reviewed.
Accumulating evidences suggest that selective ligands for α7 nAChRs hold promise in the treatment of chronic pain conditions as they lack many of side effects associated with other nicotinic receptor types.
This review provides the reader recent insights on α7 nAChRs from structure and function to the latest findings on the pharmacology and therapeutic targeting of these receptors for the treatment of pain and inflammation.
在过去的三十年中，尼古丁和烟碱型乙酰胆碱受体（nAChRs）一直被作为控制疼痛的靶点进行研究。本文旨在从疼痛及其调节的角度，向读者介绍α7 nAChRs。
综述了α7 nAChR 调节剂的发展和最近与疼痛相关的动物研究。
越来越多的证据表明，α7 nAChR 的选择性配体在治疗慢性疼痛疾病方面具有广阔的前景，因为它们缺乏与其他烟碱受体类型相关的许多副作用。
本综述从结构和功能到这些受体的药理学和治疗靶点方面，为读者提供了有关α7 nAChRs 的最新见解，以治疗疼痛和炎症。
