Alterations in Spinal Cord Metabolism during Treatment of Neuropathic Pain

Caroline H. Johnson, Gary J. Patti, Jean Philippe Courade, Leah P. Shriver, Linh T. Hoang, Marianne Manchester, Gary Siuzdak

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

Therapeutic options for neuropathic pain have improved over the last 20 years yet still only provide partial relief with numerous side effects. Recently, metabolomics revealed that the concentration of the endogenous metabolite N,N-dimethylsphingosine (DMS) is increased in the spinal cord in a model of neuropathic pain. Additionally, it was shown that introduction of DMS to the central nervous system (CNS) resulted in mechanical allodynia. Here, we have examined two compounds; pregabalin (Lyrica®), a drug used to treat neuropathic pain, and N-oleoylethanolamine (NOE), an endogenous endocannabinoid-like compound that is known to affect multiple lipid pathways. We found that the concentration of DMS in the spinal cord was not significantly altered upon pregabalin treatment of rats suffering from neuropathic pain. We further explored whether modulating lipid metabolism may impact neuropathic pain by testing NOE as a potential novel therapeutic.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)396-401
Number of pages6
JournalJournal of Neuroimmune Pharmacology
Volume10
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 22 2015

Keywords

  • Antimetabolite
  • Metabolomics
  • N,N-dimethylsphingosine
  • N-oleoylethanolamine
  • Neuropathic pain
  • Pregabalin

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