Publications

DNA microarrays produced by deposition (or 'spotting')of a single long oligonucleotide probe for each gene may be an attractive alternative to other types of arrays. We produced spotted oligonucleotide arrays using two large collections of approximately 70-mer probes, and used these arrays to analyze gene expression in two dissimilar human RNA samples. These samples were also analyzed using arrays produced by in situ synthesis of sets of multiple short (25-mer) oligonucleotides for each gene (Affymetrix GeneChips). We compared expression measurements for 7344 genes that were represented in both long oligonucleotide probe collections and the in situ-synthesized 25-mer arrays. We found strong correlations (r = 0.8-0.9) between relative gene expression measurements made with spotted long oligonucleotide probes and in situ-synthesized 25-mer probe sets. Spotted long oligonucleotide arrays were suitable for use with both unamplified cDNA and amplified RNA targets, and are a cost-effective alternative for many functional genomics applications. Most previously reported evaluations of microarray technologies have focused on expression measurements made on a relatively small number of genes. The approach described here involves far more gene expression measurements and provides a useful method for comparing existing and emerging techniques for genome-scale expression analysis.

We report on the response of medically refractory neuropathic trigeminal pain in three patients to intravenous administration of a combination of the kappa-partial agonist opioid nalbuphine and the opioid antagonist naloxone. Each of the three patients had developed a painful peripheral neuropathy as a complication of chemical or mechanical injury to the trigeminal nerve. Each patient had been tried on a number of analgesics, including mu-opioids, and had not gained relief or was not able to tolerate side effects of the medications. Pain intensity was measured for 3 h following drug administration using a 10 cm visual analog scale. All three patients reported marked decrease in pain following administration of the nalbuphine and naloxone combination. These findings suggest a novel approach to the management for neuropathic pain.