Arginine vasopressin induces analgesic effects and inhibits pyramidal cells in the anterior cingulate cortex in spared nerve injured mice.

Neuropathic pain (NP) is a severe disease caused by a primary disease or lesion affecting the somatosensory nervous system. It`s reported that NP is related to the increased activity of glutamatergic pyramidal cells and changed neural oscillations in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Arginine vasopressin (AVP), a neurohypophyseal hormone, has been shown to cause pain-alleviating effects when applied to peripheral system. However, the extent to which, and the mechanisms by which, AVP induces analgesic effects in the central nervous system remain unclear. In the present study, we observed that intranasal delivery of AVP inhibited mechanical pain, thermal pain and spontaneous pain sensitivity in mice with spared nerve injury. Meanwhile, AVP application exclusively reduced the FOS expression in the pyramidal cells but not interneurons in the ACC. In vivo electrophysiological recording of the ACC further showed that AVP application not only inhibited the theta oscillation in local field potential analysis, but also reduced the firing rate of spikes of pyramidal cells in the ACC in neuropathic pain mice. In summary, AVP induce analgesic effects by inhibiting neural theta oscillations and the spiking of pyramidal cells of the ACC in mice with neuropathic pain, which should provide new potential noninvasive methods for clinical treatment of chronic pain.