12 results
Evaluation of an online research best practices training for community health workers and promotoras
- Susan L. Murphy, Gina M. Jay, Elias M. Samuels, Brenda L. Eakin, Alexandra E. Harper, Gretchen A. Piatt, Vanessa I. Trujillo, Kristen L. Weeks-Norton, Catherine W. Striley, Catina O’Leary, Jordan Hahn, Daphne C. Watkins, Linda B. Cottler, Sergio Aguilar Gaxiola
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- Journal:
- Journal of Clinical and Translational Science / Volume 7 / Issue 1 / 2023
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 05 September 2023, e195
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Introduction:
Community health workers and promotoras (CHW/Ps) have a fundamental role in facilitating research with communities. However, no national standard training exists as part of the CHW/P job role. We developed and evaluated a culturally- and linguistically tailored online research best practices course for CHW/Ps to meet this gap.
Methods:After the research best practices course was developed, we advertised the opportunity to CHW/Ps nationwide to complete the training online in English or Spanish. Following course completion, CHW/Ps received an online survey to rate their skills in community-engaged research and their perceptions of the course using Likert scales of agreement. A qualitative content analysis was conducted on open-ended response data.
Results:104 CHW/Ps completed the English or Spanish course (n = 52 for each language; mean age 42 years SD ± 12); 88% of individuals identified as female and 56% identified as Hispanic, Latino, or Spaniard. 96%–100% of respondents reported improvement in various skills. Nearly all CHW/Ps (97%) agreed the course was relevant to their work, and 96% felt the training was useful. Qualitative themes related to working more effectively as a result of training included enhanced skills, increased resources, and building bridges between communities and researchers.
Discussion:The CHW/P research best practices course was rated as useful and relevant by CHW/Ps, particularly for communicating about research with community members. This course can be a professional development resource for CHW/Ps and could serve as the foundation for a national standardized training on their role related to research best practices.
Community health workers and promotoras’ perspectives of a research best practice course: A focus group study
- Deepthi S. Varma, Elias Samuels, Gretchen Piatt, Daphne C. Watkins, Meghan Spiroff, Linda B. Cottler, Sergio Aguilar Gaxiola, Susan L. Murphy
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- Journal:
- Journal of Clinical and Translational Science / Volume 6 / Issue 1 / 2022
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 26 September 2022, e137
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Introduction:
Community Health Workers and Promotoras (CHW/Ps) are valued for their role in helping to engage community members in research. CHW/Ps have traditionally received variable training in research fundamentals, including importance and promotion of research rigor to establish consistency in the methods used over time. Research best practices training exists for research professionals, but no standard training is provided as part of the CHW/P job role. To develop this CHW/P research best practices training, our team engaged English- and Spanish-speaking CHW/Ps to watch an early version of an online module and to examine perceptions of the relevance of such a training and optimal delivery methods.
Methods:Six virtual focus group discussions were conducted (three in English and three in Spanish) across different US geographic regions with currently employed CHW/Ps.
Results:Forty CHW/Ps participated (95% female, mean age 44 years, 58% identifying as Hispanic/Latino). Four themes emerged: relevance of training, benefits of providing a certificate of completion, flexible training delivery modalities, and peer-led training.
Discussion:With participation from representatives of the intended learner group of CHW/Ps, our team found that CHW/Ps valued learning about research best practices. They perceived culturally- and linguistically appropriate health research training to be highly relevant to their role, particularly for communicating key information to community members about their participation in health research. Additionally, participants provided input on effective dissemination of the training including the benefit of having proof of course completion, involvement of peer trainers, and value of providing the option to participate in online training.
Contributors
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- By Yohance M. Allette, Christophe Altier, Charles E. Argoff, Nadine Attal, Paul J. Austin, Didier Bouhassira, Ian Carroll, Kristine M. Chapman, Stephen Coleman, Lynn Kerene Cooper, Michael R. Due, Mary-Ann Fitzcharles, Robyn Flynn, Andrea D. Furlan, Vishal Gupta, Maija Haanpää, Jennifer Hah, Steven H. Horowitz, John Hughes, Mark R. Hutchinson, Scott Jarvis, Maan Kattan, Manpreet Kaur, Bradley J. Kerr, Krishna Kumar, Yuen Hei Kwok, Wojciech Leppert, Liang Liu, Angela Mailis-Gagnon, Gila Moalem-Taylor, Dwight E. Moulin, Harsha Nagaraja, Dontese Nicholson, Lauren Nicotra, Anne Louise Oaklander, John Xavier Pereira, Syed Rizvi, Stephan A. Schug, Michael Serpell, Amanda Sherwin, Howard S. Smith, Peter A. Smith, Pam Squire, Peter A. Ste-Marie, Patrick L. Stemkowski, Nicole M. Sumracki, Cory Toth, Krista van Steeg, Jan H. Vranken, Bharati Vyawahare, Mark A. Ware, Linda R. Watkins, C. Peter N. Watson, Fletcher A. White
- Edited by Cory Toth, Dwight E. Moulin
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- Book:
- Neuropathic Pain
- Published online:
- 05 December 2013
- Print publication:
- 07 November 2013, pp vii-x
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Chapter 29 - The future: new concepts and potential therapies
- from Section 7 - The Prognosis of Neuropathic Pain
- Edited by Cory Toth, Dwight E. Moulin
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- Neuropathic Pain
- Published online:
- 05 December 2013
- Print publication:
- 07 November 2013, pp 341-356
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Summary
Tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) and serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) (venlafaxine, duloxetine) are recommended as the first-line agents for peripheral neuropathic pain, especially for painful polyneuropathy, the other first-line options being gabapentinoids and topical lidocaine. Tricyclic antidepressants became a mainstay in the management of neuropathic pain before their mechanisms were elucidated and before the advent of systematic ways to evaluate their efficacy. Venlafaxine and duloxetine should be used with caution in patients with a history of mania, seizures, or bleeding tendency. Due to risk of excessive serotoninergic effect, they should be used with caution in patients receiving concomitant selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) or tramadol treatment. When selecting the treatment for an individual patient, comorbid conditions and their medications need to be taken into account. More detailed information of the effects of pharmacological agents on various symptoms of neuropathic pain and sensory profiles may guide drug selection in the future.
Chapter 37 - Acute fatty liver of pregnancy
- from Section 5 - Serious problems related to pregnancy
- Edited by Marc van de Velde, Helen Scholefield, Lauren A. Plante
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- Book:
- Maternal Critical Care
- Published online:
- 05 July 2013
- Print publication:
- 04 July 2013, pp 418-427
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Summary
Pregnant women may have chronic neurological disease or may develop neurological disease during pregnancy and the postpartum period. Status epilepticus, stroke, cerebral vein thrombosis, posterior spinal encephalopathy syndrome (PRES), are some neurological conditions that are more likely to occur during pregnancy. Clinical trials of PRES treatment are lacking. Intensive care is usually indicated, with continuous blood pressure monitoring, treatment of hypertension, and if possible, removal of the underlying cause. Both neuraxial (including both spinal and epidural anesthesia/analgesia) and general anesthesia have been described for delivery of patients with Guillain-Barre syndrome. High thoracic or cervical spinal cord lesions are associated with neurogenic shock because of blockade of autonomic function at the level of the spinal cord injury (SCI). Spinal/epidural hematoma is a rare complication of neuraxial procedures in the obstetric population. Pregnant patients are hypercoagulable and this may confer some degree of protection.
Contributors
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- By Victoria M. Allen, Frederic Amant, Sarah Armstrong, Thomas F. Baskett, Michael A. Belfort, Meredith Birsner, Renee D. Boss, Leanne Bricker, Josaphat K. Byamugisha, Giorgio Capogna, Michael P. Casaer, Frank A. Chervenak, Vicki Clark, Filip Claus, Malachy O. Columb, Charles Cox, Jean T. Cox, Vegard Dahl, John Davison, Jan Deprest, Clifford S. Deutschman, Roland Devlieger, Karim Djekidel, Steven Dymarkowski, Roshan Fernando, Clare Fitzpatrick, Sreedhar Gaddipati, Thierry Girard, Emily Gordon, Ian A. Greer, David Grooms, Sina Haeri, Katy Harrison, Edward J. Hayes, Michelle Hladunewich, Andra H. James, Tracey Johnston, Bellal Joseph, Erin Keely, Ruth Landau, Stephen E. Lapinsky, Susanna I. Lee, Larry Leeman, Hennie Lombaard, Stephen Lu, Alison MacArthur, Laura A. Magee, Paul E. Marik, Laurence B. McCullough, Alexandre Mignon, Carlo Missant, Jack Moodley, Lisa E. Moore, Kate Morse, Warwick D. Ngan Kee, Catherine Nelson-Piercy, Clemens M. Ortner, Geraldine O’Sullivan, Luis D. Pacheco, Fathima Paruk, Melina Pectasides, Nigel Pereira, Patricia Peticca, Sharon T. Phelan, Felicity Plaat, Lauren A. Plante, Michael P. Plevyak, Dianne Plews, Wendy Pollock, Laura C. Price, Peter Rhee, Leiv Arne Rosseland, Kathryn M. Rowan, Helen Ryan, Helen Scholefield, Neil S. Seligman, Nadir Sharawi, Alex Sia, Bob Silver, Mieke Soens, Ulrich J. Spreng, Silvia Stirparo, Nova Szoka, Andrew Tang, Kha M. Tran, Els Troost, Lawrence C. Tsen, Derek Tuffnell, Kristel Van Calsteren, Marc Van de Velde, Marcel Vercauteren, Chris Verslype, Peter von Dadelszen, Carl Waldman, Michelle Walters, Linda Watkins, Paul Westhead, Cynthia A. Wong, Gerda G. Zeeman, Joost J. Zwart
- Edited by Marc van de Velde, Helen Scholefield, Lauren A. Plante
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- Book:
- Maternal Critical Care
- Published online:
- 05 July 2013
- Print publication:
- 04 July 2013, pp ix-xiv
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- By Aakash Agarwala, Linda S. Aglio, Rae M. Allain, Paul D. Allen, Houman Amirfarzan, Yasodananda Kumar Areti, Amit Asopa, Edwin G. Avery, Patricia R. Bachiller, Angela M. Bader, Rana Badr, Sibinka Bajic, David J. Baker, Sheila R. Barnett, Rena Beckerly, Lorenzo Berra, Walter Bethune, Sascha S. Beutler, Tarun Bhalla, Edward A. Bittner, Jonathan D. Bloom, Alina V. Bodas, Lina M. Bolanos-Diaz, Ruma R. Bose, Jan Boublik, John P. Broadnax, Jason C. Brookman, Meredith R. Brooks, Roland Brusseau, Ethan O. Bryson, Linda A. Bulich, Kenji Butterfield, William R. Camann, Denise M. Chan, Theresa S. Chang, Jonathan E. Charnin, Mark Chrostowski, Fred Cobey, Adam B. Collins, Mercedes A. Concepcion, Christopher W. Connor, Bronwyn Cooper, Jeffrey B. Cooper, Martha Cordoba-Amorocho, Stephen B. Corn, Darin J. Correll, Gregory J. Crosby, Lisa J. Crossley, Deborah J. Culley, Tomas Cvrk, Michael N. D'Ambra, Michael Decker, Daniel F. Dedrick, Mark Dershwitz, Francis X. Dillon, Pradeep Dinakar, Alimorad G. Djalali, D. John Doyle, Lambertus Drop, Ian F. Dunn, Theodore E. Dushane, Sunil Eappen, Thomas Edrich, Jesse M. Ehrenfeld, Jason M. Erlich, Lucinda L. Everett, Elliott S. Farber, Khaldoun Faris, Eddy M. Feliz, Massimo Ferrigno, Richard S. Field, Michael G. Fitzsimons, Hugh L. Flanagan Jr., Vladimir Formanek, Amanda A. Fox, John A. Fox, Gyorgy Frendl, Tanja S. Frey, Samuel M. Galvagno Jr., Edward R. Garcia, Jonathan D. Gates, Cosmin Gauran, Brian J. Gelfand, Simon Gelman, Alexander C. Gerhart, Peter Gerner, Omid Ghalambor, Christopher J. Gilligan, Christian D. Gonzalez, Noah E. Gordon, William B. Gormley, Thomas J. Graetz, Wendy L. Gross, Amit Gupta, James P. Hardy, Seetharaman Hariharan, Miriam Harnett, Philip M. Hartigan, Joaquim M. Havens, Bishr Haydar, Stephen O. Heard, James L. Helstrom, David L. Hepner, McCallum R. Hoyt, Robert N. Jamison, Karinne Jervis, Stephanie B. Jones, Swaminathan Karthik, Richard M. Kaufman, Shubjeet Kaur, Lee A. Kearse Jr., John C. Keel, Scott D. Kelley, Albert H. Kim, Amy L. Kim, Grace Y. Kim, Robert J. Klickovich, Robert M. Knapp, Bhavani S. Kodali, Rahul Koka, Alina Lazar, Laura H. Leduc, Stanley Leeson, Lisa R. Leffert, Scott A. LeGrand, Patricio Leyton, J. Lance Lichtor, John Lin, Alvaro A. Macias, Karan Madan, Sohail K. Mahboobi, Devi Mahendran, Christine Mai, Sayeed Malek, S. Rao Mallampati, Thomas J. Mancuso, Ramon Martin, Matthew C. Martinez, J. A. Jeevendra Martyn, Kai Matthes, Tommaso Mauri, Mary Ellen McCann, Shannon S. McKenna, Dennis J. McNicholl, Abdel-Kader Mehio, Thor C. Milland, Tonya L. K. Miller, John D. Mitchell, K. Annette Mizuguchi, Naila Moghul, David R. Moss, Ross J. Musumeci, Naveen Nathan, Ju-Mei Ng, Liem C. Nguyen, Ervant Nishanian, Martina Nowak, Ala Nozari, Michael Nurok, Arti Ori, Rafael A. Ortega, Amy J. Ortman, David Oxman, Arvind Palanisamy, Carlo Pancaro, Lisbeth Lopez Pappas, Benjamin Parish, Samuel Park, Deborah S. Pederson, Beverly K. Philip, James H. Philip, Silvia Pivi, Stephen D. Pratt, Douglas E. Raines, Stephen L. Ratcliff, James P. Rathmell, J. Taylor Reed, Elizabeth M. Rickerson, Selwyn O. Rogers Jr., Thomas M. Romanelli, William H. Rosenblatt, Carl E. Rosow, Edgar L. Ross, J. Victor Ryckman, Mônica M. Sá Rêgo, Nicholas Sadovnikoff, Warren S. Sandberg, Annette Y. Schure, B. Scott Segal, Navil F. Sethna, Swapneel K. Shah, Shaheen F. Shaikh, Fred E. Shapiro, Torin D. Shear, Prem S. Shekar, Stanton K. Shernan, Naomi Shimizu, Douglas C. Shook, Kamal K. Sikka, Pankaj K. Sikka, David A. Silver, Jeffrey H. Silverstein, Emily A. Singer, Ken Solt, Spiro G. Spanakis, Wolfgang Steudel, Matthias Stopfkuchen-Evans, Michael P. Storey, Gary R. Strichartz, Balachundhar Subramaniam, Wariya Sukhupragarn, John Summers, Shine Sun, Eswar Sundar, Sugantha Sundar, Neelakantan Sunder, Faraz Syed, Usha B. Tedrow, Nelson L. Thaemert, George P. Topulos, Lawrence C. Tsen, Richard D. Urman, Charles A. Vacanti, Francis X. Vacanti, Joshua C. Vacanti, Assia Valovska, Ivan T. Valovski, Mary Ann Vann, Susan Vassallo, Anasuya Vasudevan, Kamen V. Vlassakov, Gian Paolo Volpato, Essi M. Vulli, J. Matthias Walz, Jingping Wang, James F. Watkins, Maxwell Weinmann, Sharon L. Wetherall, Mallory Williams, Sarah H. Wiser, Zhiling Xiong, Warren M. Zapol, Jie Zhou
- Edited by Charles Vacanti, Scott Segal, Pankaj Sikka, Richard Urman
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- Book:
- Essential Clinical Anesthesia
- Published online:
- 05 January 2012
- Print publication:
- 11 July 2011, pp xv-xxviii
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Contributors
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- By Jane E. Adcock, Yahya Aghakhani, A. Anand, Eva Andermann, Frederick Andermann, Alexis Arzimanoglou, Sandrine Aubert, Nadia Bahi-Buisson, Carman Barba, Agatino Battaglia, Geneviève Bernard, Nadir E. Bharucha, Laurence A. Bindoff, William Bingaman, Francesca Bisulli, Thomas P. Bleck, Stewart G. Boyd, Andreas Brunklaus, Harry Bulstrode, Jorge G. Burneo, Laura Canafoglia, Laura Cantonetti, Roberto H. Caraballo, Fernando Cendes, Kevin E. Chapman, Patrick Chauvel, Richard F. M. Chin, H. T. Chong, Fahmida A. Chowdhury, Catherine J. Chu-Shore, Rolando Cimaz, Andrew J. Cole, Bernard Dan, Geoffrey Dean, Alessio De Ciantis, Fernando De Paolis, Rolando F. Del Maestro, Irissa M. Devine, Carlo Di Bonaventura, Concezio Di Rocco, Henry B. Dinsdale, Maria Alice Donati, François Dubeau, Michael Duchowny, Olivier Dulac, Monika Eisermann, Brent Elliott, Bernt A. Engelsen, Kevin Farrell, Natalio Fejerman, Rosalie E. Ferner, Silvana Franceschetti, Robert Friedlander, Antonio Gambardella, Hector H. Garcia, Serena Gasperini, Lorenzo Genitori, Gioia Gioi, Flavio Giordano, Leif Gjerstad, Daniel G. Glaze, Howard P. Goodkin, Sidney M. Gospe, Andrea Grassi, William P. Gray, Renzo Guerrini, Marie-Christine Guiot, William Harkness, Andrew G. Herzog, Linda Huh, Margaret J. Jackson, Thomas S. Jacques, Anna C. Jansen, Sigmund Jenssen, Michael R. Johnson, Dorothy Jones-Davis, Reetta Kälviäinen, Peter W. Kaplan, John F. Kerrigan, Autumn Marie Klein, Matthias Koepp, Edwin H. Kolodny, Kandan Kulandaivel, Ruben I. Kuzniecky, Ahmed Lary, Yolanda Lau, Anna-Elina Lehesjoki, Maria K. Lehtinen, Holger Lerche, Michael P. T. Lunn, Snezana Maljevic, Mark R. Manford, Carla Marini, Bindu Menon, Giulia Milioli, Eli M. Mizrahi, Manish Modi, Márcia Elisabete Morita, Manuel Murie-Fernandez, Vivek Nambiar, Lina Nashef, Vincent Navarro, Aidan Neligan, Ruth E. Nemire, Charles R. J. C. Newton, John O'Donavan, Hirokazu Oguni, Teiichi Onuma, Andre Palmini, Eleni Panagiotakaki, Pasquale Parisi, Elena Parrini, Liborio Parrino, Ignacio Pascual-Castroviejo, M. Scott Perry, Perrine Plouin, Charles E. Polkey, Suresh S. Pujar, Karthik Rajasekaran, R. Eugene Ramsey, Rahul Rathakrishnan, Roberta H. Raven, Guy M. Rémillard, David Rosenblatt, M. Elizabeth Ross, Abdulrahman Sabbagh, P. Satishchandra, Swati Sathe, Ingrid E. Scheffer, Philip A. Schwartzkroin, Rod C. Scott, Frédéric Sedel, Michelle J. Shapiro, Elliott H. Sherr, Michael Shevell, Simon D. Shorvon, Adrian M. Siegel, Gagandeep Singh, S. Sinha, Barbara Spacca, Waney Squier, Carl E. Stafstrom, Bernhard J. Steinhoff, Andrea Taddio, Gianpiero Tamburrini, C. T. Tan, Raymond Y. L. Tan, Erik Taubøll, Robert W. Teasell, Mario Giovanni Terzano, Federica Teutonico, Suzanne A. Tharin, Elizabeth A. Thiele, Pierre Thomas, Paolo Tinuper, Dorothée Kasteleijn-Nolst Trenité, Sumeet Vadera, Pierangelo Veggiotti, Jean-Pierre Vignal, J. M. Walshe, Elizabeth J. Waterhouse, David Watkins, Ruth E. Williams, Yue-Hua Zhang, Benjamin Zifkin, Sameer M. Zuberi
- Edited by Simon D. Shorvon, Frederick Andermann, Renzo Guerrini
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- Book:
- The Causes of Epilepsy
- Published online:
- 05 March 2012
- Print publication:
- 14 April 2011, pp ix-xvi
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Aircraft noise and mental health: II. Use of medicines and health care services
- Gareth Watkins, Alex Tarnopolsky, Linda M. Jenkins
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- Journal:
- Psychological Medicine / Volume 11 / Issue 1 / February 1981
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 09 July 2009, pp. 155-168
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A domiciliary survey (sample size circa 6000) was conducted in areas of different aircraft noise exposure affected by London (Heathrow) Airport. Respondents were urban dwellers aged 16+. Their use of medicines, general practitioner services, hospital facilities and community services were investigated in relation both to the level of aircraft noise and to the degree of annoyance it causes. None of the indicators showed higher uptake in the high noise areas. The relationships between health indicators, noise and annoyance were not uniform. In areas exposed to high noise the use of non-prescribed drugs was significantly higher among ‘very annoyed’ than among ‘less annoyed’ respondents. The uptake of psychotropic drugs, and the use of general practice and out-patient services, tended to increase with increasing annoyance both in high- and low-noise areas, but the differences were not in all cases statistically significant. Parallels were drawn between these results and those of earlier analyses of the same survey related to the prevalence of acute and chronic symptoms. Suggestions for the analysis and interpretation of health effects of noise are put forward.
The glial modulatory drug AV411 attenuates mechanical allodynia in rat models of neuropathic pain
- Annemarie Ledeboer, Tongyao Liu, Jennifer A. Shumilla, John H. Mahoney, Sharmila Vijay, Matthew I. Gross, Joseph A. Vargas, Lance Sultzbaugh, Mark D. Claypool, Laura M. Sanftner, Linda R. Watkins, Kirk W. Johnson
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- Journal:
- Neuron Glia Biology / Volume 2 / Issue 4 / November 2006
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 26 February 2007, pp. 279-291
- Print publication:
- November 2006
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Controlling neuropathic pain is an unmet medical need and we set out to identify new therapeutic candidates. AV411 (ibudilast) is a relatively nonselective phosphodiesterase inhibitor that also suppresses glial-cell activation and can partition into the CNS. Recent data strongly implicate activated glial cells in the spinal cord in the development and maintenance of neuropathic pain. We hypothesized that AV411 might be effective in the treatment of neuropathic pain and, hence, tested whether it attenuates the mechanical allodynia induced in rats by chronic constriction injury (CCI) of the sciatic nerve, spinal nerve ligation (SNL) and the chemotherapeutic paclitaxel (Taxol¯). Twice-daily systemic administration of AV411 for multiple days resulted in a sustained attenuation of CCI-induced allodynia. Reversal of allodynia was of similar magnitude to that observed with gabapentin and enhanced efficacy was observed in combination. We further show that multi-day AV411 reduces SNL-induced allodynia, and reverses and prevents paclitaxel-induced allodynia. Also, AV411 cotreatment attenuates tolerance to morphine in nerve-injured rats. Safety pharmacology, pharmacokinetic and initial mechanistic analyses were also performed. Overall, the results indicate that AV411 is effective in diverse models of neuropathic pain and support further exploration of its potential as a therapeutic agent for the treatment of neuropathic pain.
Intrathecal polymer-based interleukin-10* gene delivery for neuropathic pain
- Erin D. Milligan, Ryan G. Soderquist, Stephanie M. Malone, John H. Mahoney, Travis S. Hughes, Stephen J. Langer, Evan M. Sloane, Steven F. Maier, Leslie A. Leinwand, Linda R. Watkins, Melissa J. Mahoney
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- Journal:
- Neuron Glia Biology / Volume 2 / Issue 4 / November 2006
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 13 July 2007, pp. 293-308
- Print publication:
- November 2006
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Research on communication between glia and neurons has increased in the past decade. The onset of neuropathic pain, a major clinical problem that is not resolved by available therapeutics, involves activation of spinal cord glia through the release of proinflammatory cytokines in acute animal models of neuropathic pain. Here, we demonstrate for the first time that the spinal action of the proinflammatory cytokine, interleukin 1 (IL-1) is involved in maintaining persistent (2 months) allodynia induced by chronic-constriction injury (CCI). The anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 can suppress proinflammatory cytokines and spinal cord glial amplification of pain. Given that IL-1 is a key mediator of neuropathic pain, developing a clinically viable means of long-term delivery of IL-10 to the spinal cord is desirable. High doses of intrathecal IL-10-gene therapy using naked plasmid DNA (free pDNA-IL-10) is effective, but the dose required limits its potential clinical utility. Here we show that intrathecal gene therapy for neuropathic pain is improved sufficiently using two, distinct synthetic polymers, poly(lactic-co-glycolic) and polyethylenimine, that substantially lower doses of pDNA-IL-10 are effective. In conclusion, synthetic polymers used as i.t. gene-delivery systems are well-tolerated and improve the long-duration efficacy of pDNA-IL-10 gene therapy.
The case of the missing brain: Arguments for a role of brain-to-spinal cord pathways in pain facilitation
- Linda R. Watkins, Steven F. Maier
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- Journal:
- Behavioral and Brain Sciences / Volume 20 / Issue 3 / September 1997
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 01 September 1997, pp. 469-470
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This commentary on
coderre & katz, wiesenfeld-hallin et al., anddickenson focuses on: (a) the brain as an under-recognized contributor to pain facilitation at the spinal cord; (b) these brain-to-spinal pathways being activated by learning or by body infection/inflammation; and (c) the resultant spinal release of anti-analgesic neuropeptides, activators of the NMDA-NO cascade, and activators of glia.