Purinergic transmission in trigeminal pain

Funding Activity

Website
http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/454606

Funding Status
Closed

Does something not look right? The information on this page has been harvested from data sources that may not be up to date. We continue to work with information providers to improve coverage and quality. To report an issue, use the .

Funded Activity Summary

Trigeminal pain includes such disorders as headache, migraine, trigeminal neuralgia, dental and temporomandibular joint pain. These disorders affect more than 10 % of the population and many of the afflicted get only partial relief from current treatments. Trigeminal pain is conveyed from the head to the brain via primary afferent nerves. Work in the current proposal focuses on transmission of information in the brainstem as well as in the primary afferent nerves. Previously our group has reported that adenosine- 5' triphosphate (ATP) causes an increase in excitatory neurotransmission from primary afferent nerves; such an increase has been reported to be painful in previous human and animal studies. Recently we have shown that the ATP induced increase in neurotransmission is dependant on activation of a specific excitatory receptor, the N-methyl D aspartate (NMDA) receptor, which has been widely implicated in other brain functions such as memory, and in disorders such as neuron death following stroke. The chief investigators involved in this application plan to study the role of the ATP receptor and the interaction with NMDA receptors in an inflammatory trigeminal pain model. Electrophysiological, pharmacological and immunohistochemical studies will be performed in order to address the aims of this proposal. A greater understanding of how these receptors modulate neurotransmission in pain pathways will lead to a greater understanding of trigeminal pain and the potential development of new therapeutics.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2007

End Date: 01-01-2009

Funding Scheme: NHMRC Project Grants

Funding Amount: $268,376.00

Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Cellular Nervous System

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

There are no SEO codes available for this funding activity

Other Keywords

analgesia | headache | pain | purines | sensitisation | trigeminal | trigeminal neuralgia

Related Links