报告题目：Deconstruction of a Spino-Brain-Spinal CordCircuit Drives Chronic Mechanical Pain

  报告人：Xiaoke Chen,Associate professor，Stanford University

  报告时间: 2025年6月24日10:00

  报告地点: 苏州大学神经科学研究所401-1500会议室

  主持人：徐广银教授

报告人简介：

Biography:Xiaoke Chen is an associate professor in the biology department at Stanford University. His labisinvestigatingbrain circuits underlying motivated behaviors and how maladaptive changes inthesecircuitslead to chronic pain, addiction and depression. He has authored multiple researcharticlesinthe prestigious journals, including Science, Nature, Nature neuroscience and Neuron.

Abstract:

Inflammation or nerve injuryatperiphery can cause chronic pain. The spinal cord-projectingneuronsintherostraventromedial medulla (RVMsc neurons) facilitate chronic pain. However,theneuronalpathwaythattransmittinginformation about peripheral injury to these descendingRVMsc neurons remains unknown. Here we report a closed-loop circuit extending fromspinacordto ventral posterolateral thalamus and posterior complex of the thalamus, proceedingtoprimarysomatosensory cortex; then returning to the spinal cordvialateral superior colliculusultimately connecting to u-opioid receptor-expressing RVMsc neurons. Silencing any nodealongthismulti-synaptic circuit has minimal effect on nociception in healthy mice, but caneliminatemechanicalhypersensitization and restore normal nociceptive response threshold in mousemodelsofinflammatory and neuropathic pain,Repetitive, but not acute, activation of each nodewithirthiscircuit in healthy mice is sufficient to cause robust chronic mechanical hypersensitizationOur findings elucidate a spino-brain-spinal circuit loop linking ascending anddescendingpathwaysthatspecificallydriveschronic mechanical pain, and identify novel cellular targetsfortreatingchronic pain.