Capsaicin in the periaqueductal gray induces analgesia via metabotropic glutamate receptor-mediated endocannabinoid retrograde disinhibition

摘要

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSECapsaicin, an agonist of transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) channels, is pro-nociceptive in the periphery but is anti-nociceptive when administered into the ventrolateral periaqueductal gray (vlPAG), a midbrain region for initiating descending pain inhibition. Here, we investigated how activation of TRPV1 channels in the vlPAG leads to anti-nociception.