Ricerc@Sapienza

In clinical practice, analgesia is still empirically monitored by using variation of heart rate, blood pressure, and sweating, as the result of the sympathetic activation, or movements. The challenge of monitoring analgesia in anesthetized patients is related to the interference of hypnosis and cardiovascular drugs used during general anesthesia, and to the rapid changes of the sympathetic system activation observed during surgery.

The amphibian Bv8 and the mammalian prokineticin 1 (PROK1) and 2 (PROK2) are new chemokine-like protein ligands acting on two G protein-coupled receptors, prokineticin receptor 1 (PKR1) and 2 (PKR2), participating to the mediation of diverse physiological and pathological processes. Prokineticins (PKs), specifically activating the prokineticin receptors (PKRs) located in several areas of the central and peripheral nervous system associated with pain, play a fundamental role in nociception.