Gut microbiota is critical for the induction of chemotherapy-induced pain

• DOI: 10.1038/nn.4606
• Publication Date: 2017-07-17T15:05:45Z
• Authors: Shiqian Shen; Grewo Lim; Zerong You; Weihua Ding; Peigen Huang; Chongzhao Ran; Jason Doheny; Peter Caravan; Samuel Tate; Kun Hu; Hyangin Kim; Michael McCabe; Bo Huang; Zhongcong Xie; Douglas Kwon; Lucy Chen; Jianren Mao
• Keywords: Limiting

Chemotherapy-induced pain is a dose-limiting condition that affects 30% of patients undergoing chemotherapy. We found that gut microbiota promotes the development of chemotherapy-induced mechanical hyperalgesia. Oxaliplatin-induced mechanical hyperalgesia was reduced in germ-free mice and in mice pretreated with antibiotics. Restoring the microbiota of germ-free mice abrogated this protection. These effects appear to be mediated, in part, by TLR4 expressed on hematopoietic cells, including macrophages.