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Papers of the Week


Papers: 23 Jul 2022 - 29 Jul 2022


2022 Jul 27


Eur J Neurosci

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation regulates neuroinflammation, relieves hyperalgesia, and reverses despair-like behavior in chronic constriction injury rats.

Abstract

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) could effectively relieve the pain and depression in neuropathic pain (NP) patients. However, the specific treatment parameters and exact mechanism are still unclear. Our purpose is to observe the effects of rTMS on pain and despair-like behavior in chronic constriction injury (CCI) rats and explore its possible mechanism. Thirty-two 8-week-old male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into 4 groups: sham operation group (S, n=8), CCI group (n=8), 1 Hz-rTMS group (n=8), and 10 Hz-rTMS group (n=8). The rTMS was applied to the left dorsal anterior agranular insular (AId) 1 week after the operation, once a day, 5 days/week for 4 consecutive weeks. Mechanical hyperalgesia, despair-like behaviors and sciatic nerve function were used to evaluate the effects of rTMS. Besides, glucose metabolism, the metabotropic glutamate receptors 5 (mGluR5), N-Methyl-D-Aspartic acid receptor type 2B (NMDAR2B), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (Ll-6), and interleukin-1β (Ll-1β) in AId were tested to explore the possible mechanism. Compared with 1 Hz-rTMS, the rats of 10 Hz-rTMS had higher the mechanical hyperalgesia, higher sugar preference and shorter swimming immobility time. Besides, the expressions of mGluR5, NMDAR2B, TNF-α, Ll-1β, and Ll-6 both in 1 Hz-rTMS and 10 Hz-rTMS groups were reduced compared to the CCI group; the 10 Hz-rTMS group had a more decrease than that of 1 Hz-rTMS. Furthermore, the [18]F-FDG uptake was lower than that in the 1 Hz-rTMS group. Compared with 1 Hz-rTMS, 10 Hz-rTMS could more effectively relieve mechanical hyperalgesia and reverse despair-like behavior in rats. The mechanism could be related to regulating mGluR5/NMDAR2B-related inflammatory signaling pathways in the AId.