The Role of TNF-alpha and MAP Kinases in the Maintenance of COMT-dependent

 描述(由申请人提供)： 慢性肌肉骨骼疼痛状况是不适应的，并对超过1亿美国人的生活产生负面影响。越来越多的文献表明，这些慢性疼痛状况是儿茶酚胺稳态失衡造成的，儿茶酚胺稳态失衡让位于促炎分子释放增加和传递疼痛信息的细胞激活增加。因此，这项建议将使用一个临床相关的动物模型来[[1]确定靶向特定的促炎分子是否能够逆转由儿茶酚胺稳态失调引起的慢性疼痛，以及2)确定哪些细胞参与疼痛信号传递，发挥促炎分子活性的下游作用。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Chronic musculoskeletal pain conditions are maladaptive and negatively impact the lives over 100 million Americans. A growing body of literature suggests that these chronic pain conditions result from imbalances in catecholamine homeostasis, which give way to increased release of pro-inflammatory molecules and increased activation of cells that transmit information about pain. Therefore, this proposal will employ a clinically-relevant animal model to [[1) determine if targeting specific pro-inflammatory molecules is able to reverse chronic pain caused by dysregulation of catecholamine homeostasis and 2) determine which cells involved in pain signal transmission play a role downstream from pro-inflammatory molecule activity.