Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease with often severe itch. The aim of this study was to determine the pruritogenic and vascular effect of serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine; 5-HT) in patients with AD and in healthy controls. A 50 µg dose of 5-HT was injected intradermally into non-lesional skin of 25 patients with AD and 25 healthy control individuals, and the effect comp...

ing 3 comorbidities (n=2). Fatigue was the most frequently experienced symptom (n=41; 55%) (Table), followed by pain (n=24; 32%) and itch (n=16; 22%). Forty-six patients experienced at least 1 of the 3 symptoms (62%), while 27 patients reported at least 1 severe symptom (VAS 50 mm) (36%). Most patients with generalized morphea (n=15; 94%) and eosinophilic fasciitis (n=9; 75%) reported fatigue. ...

Scratching relieves itch, but the underlying neural mechanisms are poorly understood. We presently investigated a role for the inhibitory neurotransmitters GABA and glycine in scratch-evoked inhibition of spinal itch-signaling neurons in a mouse model of chronic dry skin itch. Superficial dorsal horn neurons ipsilateral to hindpaw dry skin treatment exhibited a high level of spontaneous firing ...

BACKGROUND Itching is a leading symptom of chronic hand eczema (CHE) having a great impact on patients. The determinants of itching in CHE are unclear. OBJECTIVE We performed a cross-sectional analysis investigating factors associated with the presence and severity of itch in CHE patients from the CARPE registry. METHODS We present baseline data on itch in relationship with sociodemographic...

Chronic pruritus affects millions of patients worldwide and has a significant impact on quality of life similar to that of chronic pain (Kini et al., 2011; Stander et al., 2007). Significant advances have been made in the last five years to elucidate the molecular pathways of acute itch (Liu et al., 2009; Sun and Chen, 2007). However, experimental approaches investigating the pathogenesis of pr...

Nedd4-family E3 ubiquitin ligases regulate signaling in intracellular pathways that control cancer, blood pressure, iron metabolism, and inflammation. These E3 ligases are catalytically active, and share a highly conserved, modular architecture. How Nedd4 family members are differentially regulated, despite their high degree of homology, is unclear. A regulatory mechanism that maintains an inac...

MEKK1-dependent signaling regulates HECT E3 ligase Itch, resulting in elevated catalytic activity. After TCR costimulation, MEKK1 predominantly induces JNK1 activation, whereas the related kinase MEKK2 regulates ERK5 activation. MEKK1 becomes phosphorylated on multiple sites and polyubiquitinated following TCR costimulation. E3 ligase Itch is recruited to activated MEKK1, but not MEKK2, and thi...

Astemizole and terfenadine, two potent non-sedative H1 antihistamines, had no effect on itch measured objectively as nocturnal scratching and subjectively on a 10 cm line. Trimeprazine, however, a more sedative but less potent H1 antihistamine, was antipruritic, as was nitrazepam, a sedative benzodiazepine. We concluded (a) that antipruritic drugs act centrally by a property related to sedation...

BACKGROUND Butorphanol is an opioid analgesic with partial agonist actions at micro- and kappa-opioid receptors (MOR and KOR). Previous studies have demonstrated that both MOR antagonists and KOR agonists are effective in alleviating intrathecal morphine-induced itch in primates. The aim of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of butorphanol as an antipruritic and to elucidate the rec...

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pain.2014.05.028 0304-3959/ 2014 International Association for the Study of Pain. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. DOI of original article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pain.2014.05.006 Itch (also known as pruritus) is transmitted from the skin to the spinal cord by specific subsets of cutaneous sensory neurons that are thought to be distinct from those...