Department of Anesthesiology, Intensive Care Medicine and Pain Medicine, First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou.
Department of Anesthesiology, Xuzhou Central Hospital, Xuzhou, China.
Neuroreport. 2021 Feb 3;32(3):274-283. doi: 10.1097/WNR.0000000000001584.
Evidence from both basic and clinical science suggests that neuropathic pain can induce cognitive dysfunction. However, these results are mainly based on a series of behavioral tests, there is a lack of quantitative variables to indicate cognitive impairment. Neuronal activity-regulated pentraxin (NPTX2) is a ubiquitously expressed, secreted protein in the nervous system. NPTX2 has been implicated to be involved in a variety of neuropathic diseases including Parkinson's disease, ischemia, and Alzheimer's disease. In a mouse model of chronic pain, NPTX2 is involved in the regulation of inflammatory responses. Here, we employ a variety of behavioral approaches to demonstrate that mice with chronic neuropathic pain have cognitive impairment and exhibit an increased anxiety response. The expression of NPTX2, but not NPTX1, was down-regulated in the hippocampus and cortex after chronic neuropathic pain exposure. The modulation effect of NPTX2 on cognitive function was also verified by behavioral tests using Nptx2 knock-out mice. Above all, we conclude that downregulation of NPTX2 induced by neuropathic pain may serve as an indicator of a progressive cognitive dysfunction during the induction and maintenance of spared nerve injury.
来自基础和临床科学的证据表明，神经病理性疼痛可导致认知功能障碍。然而，这些结果主要基于一系列行为测试，缺乏定量变量来表明认知损伤。神经元活动调节五聚素（NPTX2）是一种在神经系统中广泛表达和分泌的蛋白质。NPTX2 已被认为与多种神经病理性疾病有关，包括帕金森病、缺血和阿尔茨海默病。在慢性疼痛的小鼠模型中，NPTX2 参与了炎症反应的调节。在这里，我们采用多种行为方法来证明患有慢性神经病理性疼痛的小鼠存在认知障碍，并表现出焦虑反应增加。慢性神经病理性疼痛暴露后，NPTX2 的表达（而非 NPTX1）在海马体和皮质中下调。使用 Nptx2 敲除小鼠进行行为测试也验证了 NPTX2 对认知功能的调节作用。总而言之，我们得出结论，神经病理性疼痛引起的 NPTX2 下调可能是 spared 神经损伤诱导和维持期间进行性认知功能障碍的一个指标。
