Molecular mechanisms of pain in acute pancreatitis: recent basic research advances and therapeutic implications

Yongzi Wu; Chenxia Han; Rong Luo; Wenhao Cai; Qing Xia; Ruotian Jiang; Pawel E Ferdek; Tingting Liu; Wei Huang

doi:10.3389/fnmol.2023.1331438

Molecular mechanisms of pain in acute pancreatitis: recent basic research advances and therapeutic implications

Front Mol Neurosci. 2023 Dec 22:16:1331438. doi: 10.3389/fnmol.2023.1331438. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Yongzi Wu^#¹, Chenxia Han^#¹, Rong Luo², Wenhao Cai¹, Qing Xia¹, Ruotian Jiang², Pawel E Ferdek³, Tingting Liu¹, Wei Huang^{1

4

5}

Affiliations

¹ West China Centre of Excellence for Pancreatitis, Institute of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, West China-Liverpool Biomedical Research Centre, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
² Laboratory of Anesthesia and Critical Care Medicine, National-Local Joint Engineering Research Center of Translational Medicine of Anesthesiology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
³ Department of Cell Biology, Faculty of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Biotechnology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland.
⁴ Institutes for Systems Genetics and Immunology and Inflammation, Frontiers Science Center for Disease-related Molecular Network, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
⁵ West China Biobank, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Although severe abdominal pain is the main symptom of acute pancreatitis, its mechanisms are poorly understood. An emerging body of literature evidence indicates that neurogenic inflammation might play a major role in modulating the perception of pain from the pancreas. Neurogenic inflammation is the result of a crosstalk between injured pancreatic tissue and activated neurons, which leads to an auto-amplification loop between inflammation and pain during the progression of acute pancreatitis. In this review, we summarize recent findings on the role of neuropeptides, ion channels, and the endocannabinoid system in acute pancreatitis-related pain. We also highlight potential therapeutic strategies that could be applied for managing severe pain in this disease.

Keywords: acute pancreatitis; endocannabinoid system; ion channels; neuropeptides; visceral pain.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by Sichuan Science and Technology Plan Projects—Key Research and Development Program (awarded to WH) and the Program of Science and Technology Department of Sichuan Province (No. 2022YFS0419 to TL), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 82104598, CH) and the SONATA BIS project No. 2022/46/E/NZ3/00200 (to PF) funded by the National Science Centre of Poland (Narodowe Centrum Nauki, NCN).