{"doi":"10.1167/tvst.14.9.11","title":"P2X4 Receptor Antagonist Ameliorates Ocular Pain in Rats After Lacrimal Gland Removal","abstract":"Purpose: The purinergic receptor P2X4 is critical to transduction of ocular pain. The aim of this study was to investigate the therapeutic potential of the P2X4 receptor antagonist BAY-776 in alleviating chronic ocular pain. Methods: Chronic ocular pain was induced in male rats (8-9 weeks old; n = 12 per group) via double lacrimal gland removal (DLGR). Rats were randomly assigned to receive vehicle control, 1.0 mg/mL BAY-776, or 2.5 mg/mL BAY-776 eyedrops after DLGR. Treatment efficacy was assessed with blink tests, wipe tests, and in vivo confocal microscopy (IVCM) at pre- and postsurgical baselines and 2 and 4 weeks of treatment. Corneal subbasal nerve plexus (SNP) density and inflammatory cells were quantified by IVCM image analysis and immunohistochemical staining. Efficacies of 2.5 mg/mL BAY-776 and 0.05% cyclosporine were also compared. Results: Compared with vehicle control, BAY-776 at both concentrations significantly reduced wipe and blink responses (P < 0.01). BAY-776 mitigated the increases in corneal SNP and inflammatory cell density after DLGR (P < 0.01). Notably, BAY-776 at 2.5 mg/mL reduced wipe test scores and inflammatory cell density at levels comparable to those of 0.05% cyclosporine (P < 0.001). Although cyclosporine did not significantly affect the blink test compared with vehicle, it reduced SNP density compared with BAY-776 (P < 0.05). Conclusions: The results indicate that BAY-776 effectively reduced chronic ocular pain in rats, showing efficacy similar to that of cyclosporine and underscoring its therapeutic potential for managing ocular pain. Translational Relevance: These results suggest that BAY-776 may be a promising option for managing chronic ocular pain.","journal":"Translational Vision Science & Technology","year":2025,"id":546727,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":1,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9638,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1438826,"name":"Stefan Bäurle","orcid":"0000-0002-0560-8379","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":292612,"name":"Marcus Karlstetter","orcid":"0000-0003-4481-6995","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1439223,"name":"Xianni Simmons","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1128971,"name":"Stefanie Seo","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1007323,"name":"Samuel C. Yiu","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1438825,"name":"Minjie Chen","orcid":"0000-0002-5335-1352","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":96,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:53:36.567932Z","pmid":"40919870","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}