PURPOSE Seasonal and perennial allergic conjunctivitis represent the majority of cases of ocular allergy. This analysis was designed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of once-daily alcaftadine 0.25% in preventing ocular itching associated with seasonal or perennial allergic conjunctivitis. SUBJECTS AND METHODS Pooled data from two double-masked, multicenter, placebo-controlled studies using...

The present study was conducted to determine whether cutaneous itch involves mu-opioid receptors in either of the spinal cord or lower brainstem or in both regions in mice. An intraplantar injection of serotonin hydrochloride (100 nmol/site) induced biting, an itch-related behavior. The behavior was inhibited by subcutaneous (0.3-1 mg/kg) and intracisternal (1--10 nmol/site), but not intratheca...

INTRODUCTION Intramedullary cavernous angioma (ICA) is a rare lesion of the spinal cord, representing only 3% - 5% of central nervous system lesions. The coexistence of trigeminal neuralgia and refractory itch is very rarely encountered in clinical practice. To our knowledge, a report of an ICA with trigeminal neuralgia and local neuropathic itch has never been published to date. Thus, we prese...

Spinal opioid-induced itch, a prevalent side effect of pain management, has been proposed to result from pain inhibition. We now report that the μ-opioid receptor (MOR) isoform MOR1D is essential for morphine-induced scratching (MIS), whereas the isoform MOR1 is required only for morphine-induced analgesia (MIA). MOR1D heterodimerizes with gastrin-releasing peptide receptor (GRPR) in the spinal...

PURPOSE The molecular basis for the normal cervical squamous epithelium advance to cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN I, CIN II, CIN III) and ultimately to invasive carcinoma has not yet been defined. We explored the abnormal expression of ITCH (AIP4) and its degrading substrate Large Tumor Suppressor 1 (LATS1) in CINs and cervical cancers, which might disrupt the normal differentiation of...

Itch, an unpleasant sensation associated with the desire to scratch, is symptomatic of dermatologic and systemic disorders that often resist antihistamine treatment. Histamine-independent itch mediators include serotonin (5-HT) and agonists of the protease-activated receptor-2 (PAR-2). We used behavior, Fos immunohistochemistry, and electrophysiology to investigate if these mediators activate s...

Itch is an aversive somatic sense that elicits the desire to scratch. In animal models of itch, scratching behavior is frequently used as a proxy for itch, and this behavior is typically assessed through visual quantification. However, manual scoring of videos has numerous limitations, underscoring the need for an automated approach. Here, we propose a novel automated method for acoustic detect...

E3 ligases Cbl-b and Itch have emerged as dominant "tolerogenic" regulators of T cells because their deficiency results in severe autoimmune diseases. Cbl-b and Itch ligase activity regulate T-cell anergy and development of Foxp3+ regulatory T cells (Treg) in the periphery by modulating key components of T-cell receptor (TCR) and transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) signaling. Manipulatio...

The specific pathway of "pure," histaminergic itch is traced from the mechano-insensitive nerve fibers in the skin to their central cortical projections. Neuropathic itch created at different levels of this anatomical pathway is reviewed. In this review the present author discusses damage to pruritoceptors in the skin, entrapment syndromes, damage to spinal ganglia, nerve root impingement, inju...

The zebrafish posterior lateral line is formed during early development by the deposition of neuromasts from a migrating primordium. The molecular mechanisms regulating the regional organization and migration of the primordium involve interactions between Fgf and Wnt/β-catenin signaling and the establishment of specific cxcr4b and cxcr7b cytokine receptor expression domains. Itch has been ident...