@article{0d185541c7f1479e82fe03e8b80c5df2,
title = "Neurotransmitter receptor densities are associated with changes in regional Cerebral blood flow during clinical ongoing pain",
abstract = "Arterial spin labelling (ASL) plays an increasingly important role in neuroimaging pain research but does not provide molecular insights regarding how regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) relates to underlying neurotransmission. Here, we integrate ASL with positron emission tomography (PET) and brain transcriptome data to investigate the molecular substrates of rCBF underlying clinically relevant pain states. Two data sets, representing acute and chronic ongoing pain respectively, were utilised to quantify changes in rCBF; one examining pre-surgical versus post-surgical pain, and the second comparing patients with painful hand Osteoarthritis to a group of matched controls. We implemented a whole-brain spatial correlation analysis to explore associations between change in rCBF (ΔCBF) and neurotransmitter receptor distributions derived from normative PET templates. Additionally, we utilised transcriptomic data from the Allen Brain Atlas to inform distributions of receptor expression. Both datasets presented significant correlations of ΔCBF with the μ-opioid and dopamine-D2 receptor expressions, which play fundamental roles in brain activity associated with pain experiences. ΔCBF also correlated with the gene expression distributions of several receptors involved in pain processing. Overall, this is the first study illustrating the molecular basis of ongoing pain ASL indices and emphasises the potential of rCBF as a biomarker in pain research.",
author = "Alexandros Vamvakas and Timothy Lawn and Mattia Veronese and Williams, {Steven C R} and Ioannis Tsougos and Howard, {Matthew A}",
note = "Funding Information: Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation, Grant/Award Number: 35; Medical Research Council, Grant/Award Number: MR/N026969/1; NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust/Institute of Cancer Research; Pfizer; MIUR, Italian Ministry for Education Funding information Funding Information: The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Alexandros Vamvakas was supported by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI) under the HFRI PhD Fellowship grant [fellowship number: 35]; Timothy Lawn is in receipt of a PhD studentship funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre at South London and Maudsley National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust and King's College London; Mattia Veronese is supported by MIUR, Italian Ministry for Education, under the initiatives “Departments of Excellence” (Law 232/2016), by Wellcome Trust Digital Award (no. 215747/Z/19/Z) and by the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London. Matthew A. Howard and Steven C.R. Williams are funded by a Medical Research Council Experimental Medicine Challenge Grant [grant number: MR/N026969/1] and are also supported by the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre for Mental Health at the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust; funding for the two source datasets was provided by Pfizer Global Research and Development. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR, or the Department of Health and Social Care. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 The Authors. Human Brain Mapping published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.",
year = "2022",
month = dec,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1002/hbm.25999",
language = "English",
volume = "43",
pages = "5235--5249",
journal = "Human Brain Mapping",
issn = "1065-9471",
publisher = "Wiley-Liss Inc.",
number = "17",
}