RT Journal Article
T1 The Role of the Locus Coeruleus in Pain and Associated Stress-Related Disorders.
A1 Suarez-Pereira, Irene
A1 Llorca-Torralba, Meritxell
A1 Bravo, Lidia
A1 Camarena-Delgado, Carmen
A1 Soriano-Mas, Carles
A1 Berrocoso, Esther
K1 DREADDs
K1 Locus coeruleus
K1 Optogenetics
K1 Pain
K1 Pupillometry
K1 Stress
AB The locus coeruleus (LC)-noradrenergic system is the main source of noradrenaline in the central nervous system and is involved intensively in modulating pain and stress-related disorders (e.g., major depressive disorder and anxiety) and in their comorbidity. However, the mechanisms involving the LC that underlie these effects have not been fully elucidated, in part owing to the technical difficulties inherent in exploring such a tiny nucleus. However, novel research tools are now available that have helped redefine the LC system, moving away from the traditional view of LC as a homogeneous structure that exerts a uniform influence on neural activity. Indeed, innovative techniques such as DREADDs (designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs) and optogenetics have demonstrated the functional heterogeneity of LC, and novel magnetic resonance imaging applications combined with pupillometry have opened the way to evaluate LC activity in vivo. This review aims to bring together the data available on the efferent activity of the LC-noradrenergic system in relation to pain and its comorbidity with anxiodepressive disorders. Acute pain triggers a robust LC stress response, producing spinal cord-mediated endogenous analgesia while promoting aversion, vigilance, and threat detection through its ascending efferents. However, this protective biological system fails in chronic pain, and LC activity produces pain facilitation, anxiety, increased aversive memory, and behavioral despair, acting at the medulla, prefrontal cortex, and amygdala levels. Thus, the activation/deactivation of specific LC projections contributes to different behavioral outcomes in the shift from acute to chronic pain.
PB Elsevier
YR 2021
FD 2021-11-26
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10668/22056
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10668/22056
LA en
NO Suárez-Pereira I, Llorca-Torralba M, Bravo L, Camarena-Delgado C, Soriano-Mas C, Berrocoso E. The Role of the Locus Coeruleus in Pain and Associated Stress-Related Disorders. Biol Psychiatry. 2022 May 1;91(9):786-797
NO This work was supported by the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional(FEDER)-UE “A way to build Europe” from the Ministerio de Economía yCompetitividad (Grant No. RTI2018-099778-B-I00 [to EB]); the Plan Nacional sobre Drogas, Ministerio de Sanidad, Consumo y Bienestar Social (Grant No. 2019I041 [to EB]); the Ministerio de Salud-Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Grant No. PI18/01691 [to JAM and IS-P]); the Programa Operativo de Andalucía FEDER, Iniciativa Territorial Integrada ITI 2014-2020 Consejería Salud y Familias, Junta de Andalucía (Grant Nos. PI-0080-2017 [to JAM and ML-T] and PI-0009-2017 [to EB]); the Consejería de Salud y Familias, Junta de Andalucía (Grant Nos. PI-0134-2018 [to LB] and PEMP-0008-2020 [to EB]); the Consejería de Transformación Económica, Industria, Conocimiento yUniversidad, Junta de Andalucía (Grant No. P20_00958 [to EB] and GroupCTS-510 [EB]); the CEIMAR (Grant No. CEIJ-013 [to LB]); the Instituto deInvestigación e Innovación en Ciencias Biomédicas de Cádiz-INiBICA (GrantNo. LI19/06IN-CO22 [to LB] and Group IN-C09 [EB]); the CIBERSAM (GroupsCB07/09/0033 [EB] and CB/07/09/0022 [CS-M]) and the European Union’sHorizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklo dowska-Curie grant agreement (Grant No. 955684 [to EB])
DS RISalud
RD Apr 20, 2025