Department of Life Innovation, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.
Adv Exp Med Biol. 2018;1099:77-91. doi: 10.1007/978-981-13-1756-9_7.
Neuropathic pain occurring after peripheral nerve injury is not simply a consequence of temporal continuity of acute nociceptive signals, but rather of maladaptive nervous system function. Over the past decades, a body of literature has provided evidence for the necessity and sufficiency of microglia, the tissue-resident macrophages of the central nervous system, for nerve injury-induced alterations in synaptic function. Recent studies have also revealed active roles for microglia in brain regions important for emotion and memory. In this chapter, I highlight recent advances in our understanding of the mechanisms that underlie the role of spinal and brain microglia in neuropathic pain, with a focus on how microglia are activated and alter synaptic function. I also discuss the therapeutic potential of microglia from recent advances in the development of new drugs targeting microglia, which may facilitate translation from the bench to bedside.
外周神经损伤后出现的神经性疼痛不仅仅是急性伤害性信号时间连续性的简单后果，而是神经系统功能失调的结果。在过去几十年中，大量文献为小胶质细胞（中枢神经系统的组织驻留巨噬细胞）在神经损伤引起的突触功能改变中的必要性和充分性提供了证据。最近的研究还揭示了小胶质细胞在对情绪和记忆很重要的大脑区域中的活跃作用。在本章中，我重点介绍了我们对脊髓和大脑小胶质细胞在神经性疼痛中作用的机制的最新理解，特别是小胶质细胞如何被激活并改变突触功能。我还讨论了针对小胶质细胞的新药开发方面的最新进展为小胶质细胞带来的治疗潜力，这可能有助于将研究成果从实验室转化到临床。
