Developing Chemical Probes for Inflammatory Pain

摘要 慢性炎症每年影响数以百万计的美国人，可表现为各种慢性疼痛状况 通常无害的刺激会产生疼痛症状。长期使用目前的疼痛疗法，包括非甾体抗炎药， 皮质类固醇和阿片类药物会引起不想要的副作用，而且成瘾的可能性会限制它们的使用。近期 研究表明，慢性低度炎症与慢性炎症增加之间存在明显的联系。 疼痛(CIP)状态。治疗这些痛苦的疾病需要替代的治疗靶点。核子 受体，配体激活的转录因子，调节包括新陈代谢在内的各种生理过程， 炎症、生殖和发育是关键的药物发现目标(仅次于GPCRs)。REV-ERB 蛋白质是核受体，其功能是转录抑制和NLRP3炎症体的直接调节 成分和促炎细胞因子(IL-1、IL-18)，并调节细胞部位的巨噬细胞的活动 损坏。到目前为止，REV-ERB在慢性疼痛症状表现中的作用尚未阐明。 由于其在NLRP3炎症体和促炎细胞因子调节中的作用，我们假设REV-ERB是一种 治疗炎症性疼痛的可行药物靶点。我们的策略将利用已知的生理功能 REV-ERB在慢性炎症中的作用，并使用化学生物学方法鉴定新的REV-ERB配体，具有优越的 药理学概况，以推动这一潜在的治疗进入临床试验。我们最新的初步数据显示， REV-ERB在小鼠体内的丢失会增加机械超敏反应。我们之前的研究表明，药理学 在临床前小鼠奖赏模型中，REV-ERB的激活没有负面影响，提示REV-ERB的靶向性 可能有益于许多慢性疼痛的情况。

SUMMARY Chronic inflammation affects millions of Americans each year and can manifest in a variety of chronic pain conditions where normally innocuous stimuli produce pain symptoms. Long-term use of current pain therapeutics, including NSAIDS, corticosteroids, and opioids, can cause unwanted side effects, and addiction potential can limit their utilization. Recent studies have demonstrated a clear link between chronic low-grade inflammation and the increase in Chronic Inflammatory Pain (CIP) conditions. Alternative therapeutic targets are needed for the treatment of these painful conditions. Nuclear receptors, ligand-activated transcription factors that regulate a variety of physiological processes including metabolism, inflammation, reproduction, and development, represent key drug discovery targets (second to GPCRs). The REV-ERB proteins are nuclear receptors which function as transcriptional repressors and direct regulators of NLRP3 inflammasome components and proinflammatory cytokines (IL-1, IL-18), and regulate the activity of macrophages at sites of cellular damage. To date, the role of REV-ERB in relation to the manifestation of chronic pain symptoms has not been elucidated. Due to its role in NLRP3 inflammasome and proinflammatory cytokine regulation, we hypothesize that REV-ERB is a viable drug target for the treatment of inflammatory pain. Our strategy will leverage the known physiological functions of REV-ERB in chronic inflammation and use a chemical biology approach to identify novel REV-ERB ligands, with superior pharmacological profiles, to advance this potential therapy toward clinical trials. Our new preliminary data shows that total loss of REV-ERB in mice increases mechanical hypersensitivity. Our previous studies demonstrated that pharmacological activation of REV-ERB had no negative effects in preclinical mouse reward models, suggesting that targeting of REV-ERB may benefit many chronic pain conditions.