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G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) constitute the single largest family of target proteins for drugs of pain and anesthesia. Non-invasive assays based on the activity of G protein-based sensors in living cells allow the identification of potentially novel compounds for anesthesia ...

The modern version of the Dental Impaction Pain Model (DIPM) was developed in the mid-1970s. Since that time, several hundred studies have been conducted by numerous investigators. Today it is arguably the most utilized of all the acute pain models. Its popularity is due to the success rate of the stud ...

The heat/capsaicin sensitization and intradermal capsaicin injection models are safe and noninvasive paradigms to generate stable, long-lasting, and reproducible injury capable of producing an area of both primary and secondary hyperalgesia. Risk of skin injury is substanti ...

The cold pressor test is a reliable pain model in which subjects submerge their hands and forearms into ice water while onset to pain, pain intensity, and tolerance are assessed. Although originally developed as a model for hypertension, the paradigm leads to development of reproducible pain r ...

The UV-B pain model utilizes ultraviolet light to induce a small area of inflammation allowing assessment of mechanical and thermal thresholds. Pharmacologic testing has mainly focused on reduction of primary hyperalgesia, although the effect of analgesics on secondary hyperal ...

Neuropathic pain is defined by International Association for the Study of Pain as “pain initiated or caused by a primary lesion or dysfunction in the nervous system which can persist long after the initial injury has healed”. Given the complexity of neuropathic pain (“lesion or dysfunction” en ...

Visceral pain models are used to study afferent nerve traffic during noxious stimulation at the level of the visceral organ. This chapter provides details on several in vitro and in vivo models of organs in the gastrointestinal and genitourinary tract that use electrophysiological reco ...

In the last decade, radiological neuroimaging techniques have enhanced the study of mechanisms involved in the development and maintenance of neuropathic pain. Recent findings suggest that neuropathic pain in certain pain syndromes (e.g., complex regional pain syndrome/reflex ...

The study of procedural sedation and analgesia has experienced significant development recently. As specific procedural sedation and analgesia agents have been developed and introduced into clinical practice, safety and efficacy studies have been conducted. The principle d ...

Standardization of the measurement of pain in clinical trials will reduce variability, thus improving the quality of the data and reducing the number of patients needed to conduct pain trials. Standardization applies to the physical and psychosocial environment surrounding the pat ...

The results of clinical studies on the value of preemptive analgesia are far from being unanimous. There are a number of potential problems related to preemptive analgesia that could lead to controversy regarding its clinical significance. The following potential problems are analyz ...

Technological innovations have increased our potential to evaluate global changes in protein and small molecule levels in a rapid and comprehensive manner. This is especially true in mass spectrometry-based research where improvements, including ease-of-use, in high performa ...

Membrane proteins, such as G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and ion channels, represent important but technically challenging targets for the management of pain and other diseases. Studying their interactions has enabled the development of new therapeutics, diagnostics, a ...

Photolabeling has allowed considerable progress in the understanding of anesthetic binding to proteins, of target identity, and of site localization. There are, however, few groups doing this work, so this article is an attempt to demystify the method. We will discuss the theory, method, and l ...

Mu-opioid receptor (MOR) belongs to a family of heptahelical G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). Studies in humans and rodents demonstrated that the OPRM1 gene coding for MOR undergoes extensive alternative splicing afforded by the genetic complexity of OPRM1. Evidence from rod ...

Identification of the molecules involved in nociception is fundamental to our understanding of pain. Drosophila, with its short generation time, powerful genetics and capacity for rapid, genome-wide mutagenesis, represents an ideal invertebrate model organism to dissect noci ...

Opioid analgesics are commonly used for the treatment of acute as well as chronic, moderate to severe pain. Well-known, however, is the wide interindividual variability in sensitivity to opioids that exists, which has often been a critical problem in pain treatment. To date, only a limited number ...

Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) is an enzyme that plays a key role in the modulation of catechol-dependent functions such as cognition, cardiovascular function, and pain processing. Recently, our group demonstrated that three common haplotypes of the human COMT gene, diverg ...

Nonselective opioid partial agonists, such as buprenorphine, butorphanol, and pentazocine, have been widely used as analgesics and for anti-addiction therapy. However, the precise molecular mechanisms underlying the therapeutic and rewarding effects of these drugs have not b ...

RNA interference (RNAi) has become a powerful tool for modulating gene expression. While delivery of small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) has achieved silencing of pain-related genes in various animal models of nociception, delivery of short-hairpin RNA (shRNA) or artificial miRNA (miR ...