Modulatory Effects of Stem Cells on Opioid Receptors and Neuroinflammation

Purpose of Review This narrative review examines stem cell therapy and its effect on opioid therapy in neuropathic pain. Recent Findings Stem cell therapy has shown promise in neuropathic pain and opioid tolerance, with a notable common pathway (the P2X4 receptor). Summary Opioid therapy frequently...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Current pain and headache reports 2022-02, Vol.26 (2), p.121-127
Main Authors: Meroney, Matthew, Winegar, Joshua, Brown, Holden, Bender, Mark, Smith, Scott, Przkora, Rene
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analgesics
Analgesics, Opioid - therapeutic use
Drug dosages
Drug Tolerance
Humans
Hyperalgesia
Hyperalgesia - drug therapy
Internal Medicine
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Morphine
Narcotics
Nervous system
Neuroinflammatory Diseases
Pain
Pain Medicine
Patients
Quality of life
Receptors, Opioid - therapeutic use
Regenerative Pain Medicine/Interventional Pain Medicine (EC Bradley
Section Editors
Spinal Cord
Stem Cells
Topical Collection on Regenerative Pain Medicine/Interventional Pain Medicine
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Purpose of Review This narrative review examines stem cell therapy and its effect on opioid therapy in neuropathic pain. Recent Findings Stem cell therapy has shown promise in neuropathic pain and opioid tolerance, with a notable common pathway (the P2X4 receptor). Summary Opioid therapy frequently has poor efficacy in patients who suffer from neuropathic pain. There is evidence that the presence of neuropathic pain itself causes changes to the opioid receptor, decreasing the therapeutic potential of this modality. The efficacy of opioid therapy is further decreased in this patient population after chronic opioid exposure, which leads to opioid tolerance and in some cases opioid-induced hyperalgesia. There is growing evidence that stem cell therapy has potential to treat neuropathic pain and may simultaneously decrease opioid tolerance and hyperalgesia. Opioid-induced hyperalgesia occurs via mu-opioid receptor-dependent expression of P2X4 receptors on microglia. Intrathecal stem cell therapy provides analgesic properties due to the significant reduction of P2X4R expression in spinal cord microglia, thereby directly decreasing chronic neuropathic pain.
ISSN:1531-3433
1534-3081
DOI:10.1007/s11916-022-01013-1