Identification of hub genes in neuropathic pain-induced depression

Abstract

Numerous clinical data and animal models demonstrate that many patients with neuropathic pain suffer from concomitant depressive symptoms. Massive evidence from biological experiments has verified that the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and other brain regions play an influential role in the co-morbidity of neuropathic pain and depression, but the mechanism by which neuropathic pain induces depression remains unclear. In this study, we mined existing publicly available databases of high-throughput sequencing data intending to identify the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the process of neuropathic pain-induced depression. This study provides a rudimentary exploration of the mechanism of neuropathic pain-induced depression and provides credible evidence for its management and precaution.