Applied Cell Biology

Determining the Role of Wnt Signaling in the Devoplment of Neuropathic Pain; Promising Preliminary Drug Targets but Much to be Discovered

Asiye Abasian

Department of Neurology, University of the Philippines Manila, Philipines

Abstract

Wnt ligands are extracellular glycolipoproteins that bind to the frizzled family of receptors to activate the transcription co-factor β-catenin to produce a variety of downstream effects on the cell. This is becoming a larger problem due to the increasing elderly population, yet good patient outcomes are still hard to come by for clinicians. But, when mice were run through a graded mechanical stimuli test, mice injected with WNT3α had increased withdrawal reactions as opposed to vehicle-injected mice. The same dose-dependent results were found in an infrared heat plantar test. β-catenin levels in the DRG were normal suggesting that the increase in WNT in DRG neurons is related to a different signaling pathway unrelated to β-catenin after CCI. Rats given XAV939 (Wnt pathway inhibitor) intrathecally present significantly lower values for PSL-induced allodynia. More research is needed to detail the exact inflammatory pathways that Wnt signaling interacts with to create NP. This evidence shows that Wnt signaling is involved indirectly or directly in the development of CCI-induced NP via the microglialneuron interaction and the inflammatory response.

Keywords:

β-catenin Glycolipoproteins Neurons