MacDonald Donald Iain, Wood John N, Emery Edward C
Wolfson Institute of Biomedical Research, UCL, United Kingdom.
Neurobiol Pain. 2020 Jan 28;7:100044. doi: 10.1016/j.ynpai.2020.100044. eCollection 2020 Jan-Jul.
The sensation of cooling is essential for survival. Extreme cold is a noxious stimulus that drives protective behaviour and that we thus perceive as pain. However, chronic pain patients suffering from cold allodynia paradoxically experience innocuous cooling as excruciating pain. Peripheral sensory neurons that detect decreasing temperature express numerous cold-sensitive and voltage-gated ion channels that govern their response to cooling in health and disease. In this review, we discuss how these ion channels control the sense of cooling and cold pain under physiological conditions, before focusing on the molecular mechanisms by which ion channels can trigger pathological cold pain. With the ever-rising number of patients burdened by chronic pain, we end by highlighting the pressing need to define the cells and molecules involved in cold allodynia and so identify new, rational drug targets for the analgesic treatment of cold pain.
凉爽的感觉对生存至关重要。极端寒冷是一种有害刺激，会引发保护性行为，因此我们将其视为疼痛。然而，患有冷痛觉过敏的慢性疼痛患者却反常地将无害的凉爽感觉体验为剧痛。检测温度降低的外周感觉神经元表达了许多冷敏和电压门控离子通道，这些通道在健康和疾病状态下控制着它们对凉爽的反应。在这篇综述中，我们首先讨论这些离子通道在生理条件下如何控制凉爽感和冷痛觉，然后重点关注离子通道引发病理性冷痛的分子机制。鉴于慢性疼痛患者的数量不断增加，我们最后强调迫切需要确定参与冷痛觉过敏的细胞和分子，从而确定用于冷痛镇痛治疗的新的合理药物靶点。
