Christoph Stein - Böcker

Immune Mechanisms of Pain and Analgesia is the first volume to discuss a new concept of immune-neural interplays leading to pain or analgesia. It argues the classical view that pain and its control are restricted to the nervous system, offering a comprehensive overview of the emerging area of immune mechanisms in pain and its control. It challenges the traditional view that pain sensation or suppression is attributed exclusively to the nervous system and presents a critical analysis of this new concept. The book is written by an internationally recognized group of researchers and discusses complex and controversial issues such as cytokines and their pain-exacerbating but also analgesic effects, the production of opioids by immune cells, peripheral analgesic and anti-inflammatory actions of opioids, immunomodulatory effects of opiates, and immunosuppressive effects of pain.

Several new developments in the field of neuroimmunology with focus on the brain-to-immune system communication have been the incentive for this PIR volume. It covers topics such as brain-immune interactions, the impact of stress on the immune response, pain and immunosuppression, the modulation of inflammation and pain by the sympathetic nervous system, consequences of nerve injury for the immune system, neuronal mechanisms of immune cell recruitment, and the modulation of the immune response by corticotropin-releasing hormone or adenosine. The authors are a unique group of scientists who are all interested in brain-to-immune interactions; however, each from a different perspective. The volume will serve both neurobiologists and immunologists to understand the influence of the central nervous system on peripheral inflammation. Many aspects of this book will also be stimulating for researchers in the pain field.

This book presents the development and experimental validation of the structural test strategy called Oscillation-Based Test -- OBT in short. The results presented here assert, not only from a theoretical point of view, but also based on a wide experimental support, that OBT is an efficient defect-oriented test solution, complementing the existing functional test techniques for mixed-signal circuits.

Analgesics are among the oldest drugs described, albeit not necessarily for medicinaluse. Forexample,theSumeriansisolatedopioids(probablyfortheir euphoric effects) in the third millennium b. c. and the use of willow bark (salicin) for fever was ?rst reported in the eighteenth century. Both types of drugs are still in use, but today they are supplemented by a wide array of substances ranging from antidepressants to ion channel blockers. Not all of theseareprescribedbyphysicians. Manycompoundsaresoldoverthecounter and thus available to the public for self-medication. As a result, analgesics are also the most misused class of drugs and are the culprit for a multitude of healthproblemsdueto untoward sideeffects. Thisvolumeattemptstosummarizethecurrentstateofknowledgeonme- anisms underlying the various effects of these drugs, their side effect pro?les, and their indications and contraindications in clinical use. It also gives - sights into current efforts to discover novel mechanisms underlying different types of pain generation and the resulting development of new modulating compounds. Theseefforts haveemergedmostlyas aconsequenceofthemore profound insights provided by molecular methods and of the now common use of animal models of pathological, rather than physiological, pain. These important issues are elaborated in the introductory chapter. In parallel, c- temporaryinterdisciplinarytreatmentapproacheshavetaughtusthatsomatic mechanisms alone cannot explain pain; it is an experience shaped as well by social context, memory, and other psychological phenomena. Thus, the book closes with two chapters putting pharmacological strategies into a broader perspective. All of these advancements culminate in the contemporary c- mon goal of developing mechanism-based rather thanempiric approaches to thetreatment ofpain.

Several new developments in the field of neuroimmunology with focus on the brain-to-immune system communication have been the incentive for this PIR volume. It covers topics such as brain-immune interactions, the impact of stress on the immune response, pain and immunosuppression, the modulation of inflammation and pain by the sympathetic nervous system, consequences of nerve injury for the immune system, neuronal mechanisms of immune cell recruitment, and the modulation of the immune response by corticotropin-releasing hormone or adenosine. The authors are a unique group of scientists who are all interested in brain-to-immune interactions; however, each from a different perspective. The volume will serve both neurobiologists and immunologists to understand the influence of the central nervous system on peripheral inflammation. Many aspects of this book will also be stimulating for researchers in the pain field.