Chemotherapy-induced neuropathic pain (CINP) is a treatment-limiting complication of several classes of anticancer agents, including the taxanes, platins, vinca alkaloids, and bortezomib. It negatively affects the quality of life of patients, and unfortunately, there is no effective treatment at present. The current treatment approaches utilize antidepressant drugs, which offer only mild improvement. Despite several research efforts in the past, the underlying mechanism behind CINP is not clear, which poses a major hurdle in developing effective therapies. In this study, we explored if neuroinflammation has any role in inducing CINP. We considered the frequently used chemotherapy agents paclitaxel and cisplatin in this study. Intraperitoneal administration of either paclitaxel or cisplatin demonstrated robust mechanical allodynia in male CD-1 mice. Co-administration of an anti-inflammatory agent, dexamethasone, significantly reversed mechanical allodynia in these models. We further investigated the impact of these drugs on neurite outgrowth of DRG cultures established from paclitaxel/cisplatin treated animals and did not observe any significant effect. However, these drugs induced hind paw denervation in these animals, and dexamethasone reversed the loss of the nerve extremities in the paws, as evident from increased PGP9.5 labeling of nerve fibers. Evaluation of macrophages' response to these drug treatments in the DRGs and nerve extremities is ongoing. Overall, our findings suggest that local inflammatory response at the nerve extremities contributes to CINP.

Neuroinflammation facilitates chemotherapy induced neuropathic pain

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PS-3-C -  Disorders of the Nervous System

poster

Colleagues and Friends:

I am very happy to welcome you to the 14th annual Canadian Neuroscience Meeting, and to the first virtual edition of our meeting. I want to highlight the important work the CAN meeting chair, **Roger Thompson** and co-chair, **Alyson Fournier**, did to put together the great program we are offering this year. Moving to a virtual format required a complete re-design of the program, and both Roger and Alyson did a splendid job in providing us with an appealing and well adapted program for our first virtual event. I wish to thank them for this very important effort.

Highlights of this year’s scientific meeting include invited speakers **Michael Hausser, Franck Polleux, Gwyneth Card, Magdalena Götz**and Brain Prize winner **Huda Zoghbi**. Plenary and parallel symposia, proposed by our members complete our diverse [scientific program.](https://can-acn.org/meeting-2021/program-2021/)

The 2021 Advocacy session, chaired and organized by CAN advocacy committee chair **Karun Singh**, will feature a special lecture and question period with Member of Parliament and past Science Minister **Kirsty Duncan**. This will be followed by a short overview of CAN’s advocacy activities over the last year. We invite you to participate in this session for insight from Dr. Duncan on the workings of Parliament Hill, and to learn more about what CAN has been doing to promote neuroscience research in Canada.

We are also excited to host **Lisa Willis** in the Equity Diversity and Inclusion session, organized by EDI committee chair **Jibran Khokhar**.

A special highlight of our meeting will be the lectures by award-winning young neuroscientists. We are please to host the CAN 2020 Young Investigator Award winner **Mihaela Iordanova**, and CAN 2021 Young Investigator Award winners **Aaron Phillips** and **Tabrez Siddiqui**. Highlights will also include presentation by the top three winners of the CAN-CIHR-INMHA Brain Star Award winners, **Claire Gizowski, Nuria Daviu Abant** and **Lukas Tamayo-Orrego**.

Independently organized satellite symposia complement and complete this exciting program, check them out here: https://can-acn.org/meeting-2021/2021-satellite-symposia/

Some of the most engaging sessions are always the poster sessions featuring the work of our trainees, so make sure to log in to Gather Town during the poster sessions to chat with the presenters.
We hope you enjoy this program, and look forward to welcoming you, virtually.

Shernaz Bamji

President of the Canadian Association for Neuroscience

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Anand Krishnan

1

Presentations

Neuroinflammation facilitates chemotherapy induced neuropathic pain