A pharmacological and transcriptomic approach to exploring novel pain targets

Abstract

Ever since the discovery that mutations in the voltage-gated sodium channel 1.7 protein are responsible for human congenital insensitivity to pain, the voltage-gated sodium channel (Na V ) family of ion channels has been the subject of intense research with the hope of discovering novel analgesics. We now know that Na V 1.7 deletion in select neuronal populations yield different phenotypes, with the deletion of Na V 1.7 in all sensory neurons being successful at abolishing mechanical and heat-induced pain. However, it is rapidly becoming apparent that a number of pain syndromes are not modulated by Na V 1.7 at all, such as oxaliplatin-mediated neuropathy. It is particularly interesting to note that the loss of Na V 1.7 function is also associated with the selective inhibition of pain mediated by specific stimuli, such as that observed in burn-induced pain where Na V 1.7 gene knockout abolished thermal allodynia but did not affect mechanical allodynia. Accordingly, significant interests exist in delineating the contribution of other Na V isoforms in modality-specific pain pathways. Two other isoforms, Na V 1.6 and Na V 1.8, are now specifically implicated in some Na V 1.7-independent conditions such as oxaliplatin-induced cold allodynia. Such selective contributions of specific ion channel isoforms to pain highlight the need to discover other putative protein targets involved in mediating nociception.The aim of my work is therefore to discover selective molecular inhibitors of Na V 1.6 and Na V 1.8, to find useful cell models for peripheral nociceptors, to investigate the roles of Na V 1.6 and Na V 1.8 in an animal model of burn-induced pain, and to screen for putative new targets for analgesia in burn-related pain.Chapter 2 of this thesis describes activity-guided discovery of novel Na V 1.6 and Na V 1.8-modulting peptides from crude spider venoms. Crude venom from Poecilotheria metallica successfully reduced Na V 1.8-mediated voltage changes in HEK293-expressing cells. A new Na V 1.8-inhibitory peptide was sequenced from the venom and named Pme1a. However, Pme1a exhibited TRPV1 agonist activity and induced nocifensive behaviours, such as paw licking, after injection into the hind paws of mice, indicating the peptide was not a selective Na V 1.8 modulator and was unsuitable as a tool for Na V 1.8 investigation.iii With the unsuccessful exploration of spider venoms for new specific inhibitors, I then investigated in vitro cell models as tools to research specific nociceptor subtypes that express Na V 1.6 or Na V 1.8. In Chapter 3, I provide the first complete transcriptome of three common in vitro neuronal cell lines (SH-SY5Y, F-11, and ND7/23) to examine whether they were appropriate for investigating the functions of Na V 1.6 and Na V 1.8, and to identify if the cell lines resemble in vivo dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neuronal subclasses. The three cell lines examined all expressed proteins belonging to similar pathways and of similar proportions to native DRG neurons. However, they did not express any ce...