The voltage-gated sodium channel Nav1.9 is an effector of peripheral inflammatory pain hypersensitivity

We used a mouse with deletion of exons 4, 5, and 6 of the SCN11A ( sodium channel, voltage-gated, type XI, alpha) gene that encodes the voltage-gated sodium channel Na(v)1.9 to assess its contribution to pain. Nav1.9 is present in nociceptor sensory neurons that express TRPV1, bradykinin B-2, and purinergic P2X(3) receptors. In Na(v)1.9(-/-) mice, the non-inactivating persistent tetrodotoxin-resistant sodium TTXr-Per current is absent, whereas TTXr-Slow is unchanged. TTXs currents are unaffected by the mutation of Nav1.9. Pain hypersensitivity elicited by intraplantar administration of prostaglandin E-2, bradykinin, interleukin-1 beta, capsaicin, and P2X(3) and P2Y receptor agonists, but not NGF, is either reduced or absent in Nav1.9(-/-) mice, whereas basal thermal and mechanical pain sensitivity is unchanged. Thermal, but not mechanical, hypersensitivity produced by peripheral inflammation (intraplanatar complete Freund's adjuvant) is substantially diminished in the null allele mutant mice, whereas hypersensitivity in two neuropathic pain models is unchanged in the Na(v)1.9(-/-) mice. Nav1.9 is, we conclude, an effector of the hypersensitivity produced by multiple inflammatory mediators on nociceptor peripheral terminals and therefore plays a key role in mediating peripheral sensitization.