Patients with chronic pain commonly report impaired memory. Increasing evidence has demonstrated that inhibition of neurogenesis by neuroinflammation plays a crucial role in chronic pain-associated memory impairments. There is currently a lack of treatment strategies for this condition. An increasing number of clinical trials have reported the therapeutic potential of anti-inflammatory therapies targeting tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) for inflammatory diseases. The present study investigated whether infliximab alleviates chronic pain-associated memory impairments in rats with chronic constriction injury (CCI). We demonstrated that infliximab alleviated spatial memory impairment and hyperalgesia induced by CCI. Furthermore, infliximab inhibited the activation of hippocampal astrocytes and microglia and decreased the release of proinflammatory cytokines in CCI rats. Furthermore, infliximab reversed the decrease in the numbers of newborn neurons and mature neurons in the dentate gyrus (DG) caused by chronic pain. Our data provide evidence that infliximab alleviates chronic pain-associated memory impairments, suppresses neuroinflammation and restores hippocampal neurogenesis in a CCI model. These facts indicate that infliximab may be a potential therapeutic agent for the treatment of chronic pain and associated memory impairments.

患有慢性疼痛的患者通常报告记忆力受损。越来越多的证据表明，神经炎症对神经发生的抑制在慢性疼痛相关的记忆障碍中起着至关重要的作用。目前缺乏针对这种情况的治疗策略。越来越多的临床试验报道了针对肿瘤坏死因子-α（TNF-α）的抗炎疗法对炎症性疾病的治疗潜力。本研究调查了英夫利昔单抗是否可以减轻慢性压迫性损伤（CCI）大鼠的慢性疼痛相关记忆障碍。我们证明英夫利昔单抗可减轻 CCI 引起的空间记忆障碍和痛觉过敏。此外，英夫利昔单抗抑制 CCI 大鼠海马星形胶质细胞和小胶质细胞的活化，并减少促炎细胞因子的释放。此外，英夫利昔单抗还逆转了慢性疼痛引起的齿状回（DG）新生神经元和成熟神经元数量的减少。我们的数据提供证据表明，英夫利昔单抗可减轻 CCI 模型中与慢性疼痛相关的记忆障碍、抑制神经炎症并恢复海马神经发生。这些事实表明英夫利昔单抗可能是治疗慢性疼痛和相关记忆障碍的潜在治疗剂。