Papers of the Week

Morphine is generally used to treat chronic pain in clinic. But long-term use of morphine can inevitably induce analgesic tolerance and hyperalgesia. Caveolin-1 is reported to affect morphine-mediated signaling transduction. However, the action mechanism of morphine-induced analgesic tolerance is still unknown. In this study, morphine-induced analgesic tolerance model was established in Sprague-Dawley rats. The effects of Caveolin-1 blocking on neuroinflammation and ERK/c-JUN pathway were then explored. Morphine can remarkably elevate the expression level of Caveolin-1. Based on paw withdrawal latency behavior test, we found that Caveolin-1 blocking can effectively attenuate morphine-induced analgesic tolerance and neuroinflammation. Activation of ERK/c-JUN significantly reversed the above influences caused by Caveolin-1 blocking. Taken together, blocking of Caveolin-1 can attenuate morphine-induced inflammation and analgesic tolerance through inhibiting NLRP3 inflammasome and ERK/c-JUN pathway.