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Itch and Its Inhibition by Counter Stimuli

  • Chapter
Pharmacology of Itch

Part of the book series: Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology ((HEP,volume 226))

Abstract

Recent studies have made significant progress in the knowledge of how itch sensation is processed, especially the molecular identity of neurons involved in itch signaling, both in the dorsal root ganglion and spinal cord. Despite these advances, the organization of these neurons in dorsal spinal cord circuits and how they interact with other somatosensory modalities, such as pain or temperature, remain relatively unexplored. Recent work from our lab and others has begun to shed light on these questions and will be the focus of this chapter. Here we describe the discovery of B5-I neurons, a population of inhibitory interneurons that function to inhibit itch, and review the evidence that these neurons mediate the inhibition of itch by counter stimuli. These studies are helping to solve the long-standing question of why itch makes us scratch.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Stephanie Buerk for the help with figures as well as Nathan Vogler and Brittany Humensky for the suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Neurobiology and Anesthesiology, The Center for Pain Research, University of Pittsburgh, 200 Lothrop Street, BSTW1465, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA

    Lindsey M. Snyder & Sarah E. Ross

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  1. Lindsey M. Snyder
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  2. Sarah E. Ross
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Correspondence to Sarah E. Ross .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pharmacology Center for Substance Abuse Research, Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

    Alan Cowan

  2. Department of Dermatology, Temple University School of Medicine, Philadephia, Pennsylvania, USA

    Gil Yosipovitch

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Snyder, L.M., Ross, S.E. (2015). Itch and Its Inhibition by Counter Stimuli. In: Cowan, A., Yosipovitch, G. (eds) Pharmacology of Itch. Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology, vol 226. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-44605-8_11

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