Maintenance of neuropathic pain caused by peripheral nerve injury crucially depends on the phosphorylation of GluN2B, a subunit of the N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor, at Tyr1472 (Y1472) and subsequent formation of a postsynaptic density (PSD) complex of superficial spinal dorsal horn neurons. Here we took advantage of comparative proteomic analysis based on isobaric stable isotope tags (iTRAQ) between wild-type and knock-in mice with a mutation of Y1472 to Phe of GluN2B (Y1472F-KI) to search for PSD proteins in the spinal dorsal horn that mediate the signaling downstream of phosphorylated Y1472 GluN2B. Among several candidate proteins, we focused on brain-enriched guanylate kinase-associated protein (BEGAIN), which was specifically up-regulated in wild-type mice after spared nerve injury (SNI). Immunohistochemical analysis using the generated antibody demonstrated that BEGAIN was highly localized at the synapse of inner lamina II in the spinal dorsal horn and that its expression was up-regulated after SNI in wild-type, but not in Y1472F-KI, mice. In addition, alteration of the kinetics of evoked excitatory postsynaptic currents for NMDA but not those for α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) receptors in spinal lamina II was demonstrated by BEGAIN deletion. We demonstrated that mechanical allodynia, a condition of abnormal pain induced by innocuous stimuli, in the SNI model was significantly attenuated in BEGAIN-deficient mice. However, there was no significant difference between naive wild-type and BEGAIN-knockout mice in terms of physiological threshold for mechanical stimuli. These results suggest that BEGAIN was involved in pathological pain transmission through NMDA receptor activation by the phosphorylation of GluN2B at Y1472 in spinal inner lamina II.
Keywords: BEGAIN; GluN2B; neuropathic pain; postsynaptic density; proteomics; spinal lamina II.