Nancy Paniagua, awarded at the XVII Congress of the Spanish Society of Pain

Abel Verard / Editorial

In recent years, due to the change in the lifestyle of the population and its poor adherence to healthy lifestyles, cases of metabolic syndrome have skyrocketed. This syndrome, characterized by the presence of abdominal obesity, high levels of glucose, cholesterol, triglycerides in the blood and arterial hypertension, supposes a combination of risk factors when it comes to developing cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and other pathologies, originating in most cases a chronic inflammatory condition as a result of cell damage and death.

In this line, Dr. Nancy Paniagua Lora, professor in the Pharmacology area of ​​the Faculty of Health Sciences, has focused on the study of the alterations that occur in patients with metabolic syndrome, through an animal model . The presentation of the results of this study has awarded him the prize for the best oral communication at the XVII Congress of the Spanish Pain Society. The research “Autonomic and sensory neuropathy in a rat metabolic syndrome model: possible correlation with spinal glia proliferation”, carried out by Antonio González, Nancy Paniagua, Esperanza Herradón, Miguel Molina-Álvarez, Carlos Goicoechea and Visitación López-Miranda , has focused on the study of the changes that occur in the transmission of the nervous system in the spinal cord in situations of chronic pain, which receives information from the different affected tissues. "In circumstances of chronic pain, changes in the neurons and glial cells occur in the spinal cord, which have been described in neuropathic pain from other causes," says the URJC researcher.

Using the animal model, Dr. Nancy Paniagua explains that "we have characterized and evaluated the visceral and sensory alterations in a model of metabolic syndrome in rats, as well as analyzed their possible correlation with the proliferation of spinal glial cells." In the study, two groups of rats have been used. One of them was fed a standard normocaloric diet and water, while the other group received a hypercaloric and high-fat diet, accompanied by sugar water. The experimental protocol, which lasted twenty weeks, included the measurement of weight, blood glucose, insulin and cholesterol in the blood, in addition to the sensitivity of the hind legs. Finally, cardiovascular function and proliferation of microglia and spinal astrocytes were evaluated.

The results obtained showed that the animals that were fed with the diet rich in fat and sugar gained weight, developed increased levels of glucose, insulin and cholesterol in the blood, and also showed an increase in mechanical sensitivity in the hind legs, change in mean arterial pressure and aortic function. Along with all this, a significant increase in astrocytes in the spinal cord was also observed compared to the group of animals with a standard diet. These results, as stated by the researcher, “reveal the possibility of carrying out a better therapeutic approach to patients with metabolic syndrome based on the mechanisms that precede the development of chronic pain”.

This research is financed through the project "New pharmacological targets for the treatment of metabolic syndrome, osteoarthritis and its complications", whose principal investigator is Dr. Carlos Goicoechea, and the internal project "High performance research group in Experimental Pharmacology of the Rey Juan Carlos University to help research groups", whose main researchers are Dr. Visitación López-Miranda and Dr. Carlos Goicoechea.