(mentions neuropathic pain) Mitochondrial dysfunction and molecular pathways of

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Exp Mol Pathol. 2007 Jan 17

Mitochondrial dysfunction and molecular pathways of disease.

Pieczenik SR, Neustadt J.

Since the first mitochondrial dysfunction was described in the

1960s, the medicine has advanced in its understanding the role

mitochondria play in health, disease, and aging. A wide range of

seemingly unrelated disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar

disease, dementia, Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy, migraine

headaches, strokes, neuropathic pain, Parkinson's disease, ataxia,

transient ischemic attack, cardiomyopathy, coronary artery disease,

chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, retinitis pigmentosa,

diabetes, hepatitis C, and primary biliary cirrhosis, have

underlying pathophysiological mechanisms in common, namely reactive

oxygen species (ROS) production, the accumulation of mitochondrial

DNA (mtDNA) damage, resulting in mitochondrial dysfunction.

Antioxidant therapies hold promise for improving mitochondrial

performance. Physicians seeking systematic treatments for their

patients might consider testing urinary organic acids to determine

how best to treat them. If in the next 50 years advances in

mitochondrial treatments match the immense increase in knowledge

about mitochondrial function that has occurred in the last 50 years,

mitochondrial diseases and dysfunction will largely be a medical

triumph.