Investigating Molecular Mechanisms of Chronic Pain in the Anterior Cingulate Cortex Through Genetically Engineered Mice

Recent advances into the understanding of molecular mechanism of chronic pain have been largely developed through the use of genetic manipulations. This is in part due to the scarcity of selective pharmacological tools, which can be readily solved by creating knockout or transgenic mice. By identifying new genes that are of import, our efforts can then be aimed at studying relevant signaling pathways, and combination of pharmacological manipulations with genetic models can be used to further examine the specific mechanisms involved in chronic pain. In this review, we will examine the genetic models that are currently in use to study chronic pain in the anterior cingulate cortex: knockout mice; transgenic mice; and the strength of combining pharmacology with these genetic models.