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George L. Wilcox, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Neuroscience
george@umn.edu
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 Neurotransmission
of Pain
Dr. Wilcox and colleagues are engaged in research into the spinal
neurotransmission of pain and mechanisms underlying hyperalgesia,
analgesia and analgesic tolerance. Studies of both excitatory and
inhibitory neurotransmission in the rodent spinal cord apply behavioral,
electrophysiological (both in vivo and in vitro),immunocytochemical
and molecular techniques. Behavioral experiments define biologically
relevant interactions, which are then examined at the cellular and
molecular level using the more reductionist approaches. A key feature
of research projects in this laboratory is open collaboration with
laboratories located both here and at other universities.
One major thrust of these investigations examines neurotransmitters
thought to mediate major components of excitatory neurotransmission
from primary afferent sensory fibers to secondary projection neurons
in spinal cord dorsal horn: the excitatory amino acids (EAAs) like
glutamate and the neurokinins like substance P. Intense or prolonged
excitatory transmission via both these pathways is thought to evoke
long term synaptic plasticity and excitotoxicity, which may underlie
the development of some chronic pain states.
A second major focus of work in the laboratory is the characterization
of several inhibitory neurotransmitters and their receptors which
together modulate this excitation. The neurotransmitters, enkephalin,
serotonin and noradrenaline, inhibit various components of the incoming
excitatory pain message in the dorsal horn via a number of inhibitory
receptor subtypes. We are characterizing the interactions between
these receptor subtypes and localizing them using transgenic mice,
antisense oligonucleotides and immunocytochemical techniques.
Finally, Dr. Wilcox facilitates access for Neuroscience students to
high performance computing laboratories on campus - The Laboratory
for Computational Science & Engineering and The Minnesota Supercomputer
Institute (MSI). High performance computers and visualization are
now finding applications in biological imaging, macromolecular modeling
and neuronal simulation. A recent neuroscience graduate student developed
a new method to optimize correspondence between neuronal simulations
and experimental structure-function data. |
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Selected Publications
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Vit JP, Ohara PT, Tien DA, Fike JR, Eikmeier L, Beitz A, Wilcox. GL. Jasmine, L. (2006) "
The analgesic effect of low dose focal irradiation in a mouse model of bone cancer is associated with spinal changes in neuro-mediators of nociception."
Pain 120:188-201.
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Wacnik PW, Eikmeier LJ, Simone DA, Wilcox GL, Beitz, AJ.
(2005) " Nociceptive characteristics of tumor necrosis factor-alpha in naïve and tumor-bearing mice." Neuroscience 132(2): 479-491 |
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Wacnik PW, Baker CM, Herron MJ, Blazar BR, Wilcox GL, Hordinsky MK, Beitz AJ, and Ericson ME. (2005) "Tumor-induced mechanical hyperalgesia involves CGRP receptors and altered innervation and vascularization of DsRed2 fluorescent hindpaw tumors."
Pain 115(1-2): 95-106 . |
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Stone L and Wilcox GL. (2004) "Alpha-2-adrenergic and opioid receptor additivity in rat locus coeruleus neurons."
Neuroscience Letters 3 61(1-3):265-268. |
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Stone L, Vulchanova L, Riedl MS, Williams FG, Wilcox GL, Elde R. (2004)
"Effects of peripheral nerve injury on delta opioid receptor (DOR) immunoreactivity in the rat spinal cord."
Neuroscience Letters 361(1-3):208-11. |
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Wacnik PW,Kehl LJ, Trempe TM, Ramnaraine ML, and Wilcox, GL. (2003) "Sarcoma tumor implantation in mouse humerus evokes movement-related hyperalgesia exceeding that evoked by intramuscular carrageenan."
Pain 101: 175-186 |
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