抗原变异可使得多种致病微生物易于逃避宿主免疫应答。表达在感染红细胞表面的恶性疟原虫红细胞表面蛋白1（PfPMP1）与感染红细胞、内皮细胞、树突状细胞以及胎盘的单个或多个受体作用，在黏附及免疫逃避中起关键的作用。每个单倍体基因组var基因家族编码约60种成员，通过启动转录不同的var基因变异体为抗原变异提供了分子基础。

疟原虫var基因转换速率变化导致抗原变异[英]／Paul H, Robert P, Christodoulou Z, et al//Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

Chronic pain is one of the most prevalent health problems in our modern world, with millions of people debilitated by conditions such as back pain, headache and arthritis. To address this growing problem, many people are turning to mind-body therapies, including meditation, yoga and cognitive behavioural therapy. This article will review the neural mechanisms underlying the modulation of pain by cognitive and emotional states - important components of mind-body therapies. It will also examine the accumulating evidence that chronic pain itself alters brain circuitry, including that involved in endogenous pain control, suggesting that controlling pain becomes increasingly difficult as pain becomes chronic.

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Cognitive and emotional control of pain and its disruption in chronic pain

Deconstructing the Neuropathic Pain Phenotype to Reveal Neural Mechanisms

Animal behaviors are reinforced by subsequent rewards following within a narrow time window. Such reward signals are primarily coded by dopamine, which modulates the synaptic connections of medium spiny neurons in the striatum. The mechanisms of the narrow timing detection, however, remain unknown. Here, we optically stimulated dopaminergic and glutamatergic inputs separately and found that dopamine promoted spine enlargement only during a narrow time window (0.3 to 2 seconds) after the glutamatergic inputs. The temporal contingency was detected by rapid regulation of adenosine 3′,5′-cyclic monophosphate in thin distal dendrites, in which protein-kinase A was activated only within the time window because of a high phosphodiesterase activity. Thus, we describe a molecular basis of reinforcement plasticity at the level of single dendritic spines.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/345/6204/1616.full.pdf

A critical time window for dopamine actions on the structural plasticity of dendritic spines.

https://www.cell.com/neuron/pdf/S0896-6273(15)00518-8.pdf

Nociception, pain, negative moods and behavior selection

Neuropathic pain is caused by a primary lesion or dysfunction in the nervous system. Investigations have mainly focused on the spinal mechanisms of neuropathic pain, and less is known about cortical changes in neuropathic pain. Here, we report that peripheral nerve injury triggered long-term changes in excitatory synaptic transmission in layer II/III neurons within the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Both the presynaptic release probability of glutamate and postsynaptic glutamate AMPA receptor-mediated responses were enhanced after injury using the mouse peripheral nerve injury model. Western blot showed upregulated phosphorylation of GluR1 in the ACC after nerve injury. Finally, we found that both presynaptic and postsynaptic changes after nerve injury were absent in genetic mice lacking calcium-stimulated adenylyl cyclase 1 (AC1). Our studies therefore provide direct integrative evidence for both long-term presynaptic and postsynaptic changes in cortical synapses after nerve injury, and that AC1 is critical for such long-term changes. AC1 thus may serve as a potential therapeutic target for treating neuropathic pain.

https://www.jneurosci.org/content/jneuro/28/29/7445.full.pdf

Presynaptic and Postsynaptic Amplifications of Neuropathic Pain in the Anterior Cingulate Cortex

Neuropathic pain, often caused by nerve injury, is commonly observed among patients with different diseases. Because its basic mechanisms are poorly understood, effective medications are limited. Previous investigations of basic pain mechanisms and drug discovery efforts have focused mainly on early sensory neurons such as dorsal root ganglion and spinal dorsal horn neurons, and few synaptic-level studies or new drugs are designed to target the injury-related cortical plasticity that accompanies neuropathic pain. Our previous work has demonstrated that calcium-stimulated adenylyl cyclase 1 (AC1) is critical for nerve injury–induced synaptic changes in the anterior cingulate cortex. Through rational drug design and chemical screening, we have identified a lead candidate AC1 inhibitor, NB001, which is relatively selective for AC1 over other adenylate cyclase isoforms. Using a variety of behavioral tests and toxicity studies, we have found that NB001, when administered intraperitoneally or orally, has an analgesic effect in animal models of neuropathic pain, without any apparent side effects. Our study thus shows that AC1 could be a productive therapeutic target for neuropathic pain and describes a new agent for the possible treatment of neuropathic pain.

Xuehan Zhang

Papers

Presynaptic and Postsynaptic Amplifications of Neuropathic Pain in the Anterior Cingulate Cortex

Identification of an adenylyl cyclase inhibitor for treating neuropathic and inflammatory pain