Identification of MOR-Positive B Cell as Possible Innovative Biomarker (Mu Lympho-Marker) for Chronic Pain Diagnosis in Patients with Fibromyalgia and Osteoarthritis Diseases
by 1,*,‡, 1,*,‡, 1,2, 1, 3, 4, 5, 5
, 5, 3, 6, 7 and 3
, 5, 3, 6, 7 and 31
ISAL Foundation, Institute for Research on Pain, 47922 Torre Pedrera, Italy
2
Global Institute on Addictions, 1501 Biscayne Blvd, FL 33132, USA
3
Institute of Research for Food Safety & Health (IRC_FSH), Department of Health Sciences, University ‘Magna Graecia’ of Catanzaro, 88100 Catanzaro, Italy
4
Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, 40127 Bologna, Italy
5
Rheumatology Unit, Department of Internal Medicine and Medical Specialities, Sapienza University of Rome, 00161 Rome, Italy
6
Unit of Flow Cytometry, IRCCS San Raffaele Pisana, 00166 Rome, Italy
7
Scientific Direction, IRCCS San Raffaele Pisana, 00166 Rome, Italy
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
This paper is dedicated to the memory of our dear student Dorothy Joy Duldulao, who prematurely passed away while this paper was being conceived.
‡
These authors contributed equally to the work.
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2020, 21(4), 1499; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms21041499
Received: 24 January 2020 / Revised: 19 February 2020 / Accepted: 20 February 2020 / Published: 22 February 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Sensitivity Illnesses: Mechanisms and Molecular Signatures)
Fibromyalgia (FM) diagnosis follows the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria, based on clinical evaluation and written questionnaires without any objective diagnostic tool. The lack of specific biomarkers is a tragic aspect for FM and chronic pain diseases in general. Interestingly, the endogenous opioid system is close to the immune one because of the expression of opioid receptors on lymphocytes membrane. Here we analyzed the role of the Mu opioid receptor on B lymphocytes as a specific biomarker for FM and osteoarthritis (OA) patients. We enrolled three groups of females: FM patients, OA patients (chronic pain control group) and healthy subjects (pain-free negative control group). We collected blood samples to apply immunophenotyping analysis. Written tests were administrated for psychological analysis. Data were statistically analyzed. Final results showed that the percentage of Mu-positive B cells were statistically lower in FM and OA patients than in pain-free subjects. A low expression of Mu-positive B cell was not associated with the psychological characteristics investigated. In conclusion, here we propose the percentage of Mu-positive B cells as a biological marker for an objective diagnosis of chronic pain suffering patients, also contributing to the legitimacy of FM as a truly painful disease. View Full-Text
Keywords: chronic pain dDiagnosis; chronic pain biomarkers; opioid receptors; lymphocytes; fibromyalgia; osteoarthritis
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