Li Zheng, Li Xiongjuan, Jian Wenling, Xue Qingsheng, Liu Zhiheng
Department of Anesthesiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Shenzhen University, Shenzhen Second People's Hospital, Shenzhen, China.
Department of Geriatric & Spinal Pain Multi-Department Treatment, The First Affiliated Hospital of Shenzhen University, Shenzhen Second People's Hospital, Shenzhen, China.
Front Mol Neurosci. 2021 Nov 23;14:760964. doi: 10.3389/fnmol.2021.760964. eCollection 2021.
Chronic pain, a severe public health issue, affects the quality of life of patients and results in a major socioeconomic burden. Only limited drug treatments for chronic pain are available, and they have insufficient efficacy. Recent studies have found that the expression of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) is dysregulated in various chronic pain models, including chronic neuropathic pain, chronic inflammatory pain, and chronic cancer-related pain. Studies have also explored the effect of these dysregulated lncRNAs on the activation of microRNAs, inflammatory cytokines, and so on. These mechanisms have been widely demonstrated to play a critical role in the development of chronic pain. The findings of these studies indicate the significant roles of dysregulated lncRNAs in chronic pain in the dorsal root ganglion and spinal cord, following peripheral or central nerve lesions. This review summarizes the mechanism underlying the abnormal expression of lncRNAs in the development of chronic pain induced by peripheral nerve injury, diabetic neuropathy, inflammatory response, trigeminal neuralgia, spinal cord injury, cancer metastasis, and other conditions. Understanding the effect of lncRNAs may provide a novel insight that targeting lncRNAs could be a potential candidate for therapeutic intervention in chronic pain.
慢性疼痛是一个严重的公共卫生问题,影响患者的生活质量,并导致重大的社会经济负担。目前仅有有限的慢性疼痛药物治疗方法,且疗效不足。最近的研究发现,在各种慢性疼痛模型中,包括慢性神经性疼痛、慢性炎症性疼痛和慢性癌症相关疼痛,长链非编码RNA(lncRNA)的表达失调。研究还探讨了这些失调的lncRNA对微小RNA、炎性细胞因子等激活的影响。这些机制已被广泛证明在慢性疼痛的发生发展中起关键作用。这些研究结果表明,在外周或中枢神经损伤后,失调的lncRNA在背根神经节和脊髓的慢性疼痛中起重要作用。本综述总结了lncRNA在由外周神经损伤、糖尿病性神经病变、炎症反应、三叉神经痛、脊髓损伤、癌症转移和其他病症引起的慢性疼痛发生发展过程中异常表达的机制。了解lncRNA的作用可能会提供一种新的见解,即靶向lncRNA可能是慢性疼痛治疗干预的潜在候选方法。