RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Transcriptional and cellular signatures of cortical morphometric similarity remodelling in chronic pain
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2021.03.24.436777
DO 10.1101/2021.03.24.436777
A1 Daniel Martins
A1 Ottavia Dipasquale
A1 Mattia Veronese
A1 Federico Turkheimer
A1 Marco L. Loggia
A1 Stephen McMahon
A1 Matthew A Howard
A1 Steven CR Williams
YR 2021
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/03/25/2021.03.24.436777.abstract
AB Chronic pain is a highly debilitating and poorly understood condition. Here, we attempt to advance our understanding of the brain mechanisms driving chronic pain by investigating alterations in morphometric similarity (MS) and corresponding transcriptomic and cellular signatures, in three cohorts of patients with distinct chronic pain syndromes (knee osteoarthritis, low back pain and fibromyalgia). We uncover a novel pattern of cortical MS remodelling involving mostly MS increases in the insula and limbic cortex, which cuts across the boundaries of specific pain syndromes. We show that cortical MS remodelling in chronic pain spatially correlates with the brain-wide expression of genes involved in the glial immune response and neuronal plasticity. Cortical remodelling in chronic pain might involve a disruption of multiple elements of the cellular architecture of the brain. Therefore, multi-target therapeutic approaches tackling both glial activation and neuronal hyperexcitability might better encompass the full neurobiology of chronic pain.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.