Publication details
Regulation of the Delta Peripheral Opioid Receptor in Pain Conditions
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2025 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| Citation | |
| Description | Primary sensory neurons (PSNs) transmit nociceptive input to the spinal dorsal horn (SDH) and contribute to the development of neuropathic pain (NPP) after nerve injury. Delta opioid receptor (DOR), expressed in PSNs and SDH neurons, achieves its functional efficacy when localized at the plasma membrane, where ligand binding suppresses neuronal excitability and attenuates NPP. Using a spared nerve injury (SNI) mouse model of NPP, we quantified DOR immunofluorescence (DOR-IF) intensity at the plasma membrane and within the cytoplasm of individual subpopulations of PSNs. The cellular distribution of DOR in SDH was determined by double immunostaining with specific markers. We performed a semi-quantitative analysis comparing DOR-IF intensity in lumbar spinal segments of naive, sham-operated, and SNIoperated animals at 7 and 21 days post-surgery. Our findings demonstrate that plasma membrane-localized DOR undergoes dynamic, injuryand time-dependent changes across PSN subpopulations. In the SDH, DORs were detected at presynaptic terminals, postsynaptic neurons, and activated glia. Both sham and SNI surgery resulted in bilaterally increased DOR-IF intensity in the lumbar SDH at both survival periods, more pronounced at 7 days. These results indicate that changes in DOR levels and distribution after nerve injury influence NPP signaling and the analgesic potential of DOR ligands. |
| Related projects: |