Fig. 4

Pretreatment with the NOX2-blocking peptide gp91-tat inhibits the upregulation of PKCε. a, b Pretreatment with the gp91-tat inhibited the upregulated of PKCε (B) but not PKC (a) induced by SNI in L4-L6 DRGs (n = 4–5/group). One-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s test. *p < 0.05 versus sham group; ##p < 0.01 versus the SNI group. c Local application of the PKCε-blocking peptide εV1-2 to L4-L6 DRGs before SNI reversed mechanical allodynia (n = 6–8/group). Kruskal-Wallis test followed by Dunn’s multiple comparison test. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 versus the sham group; ##p < 0.01 versus SNI group. d Pretreatment with εV1-2 inhibited the SNI-induced the upregulated of NOX2 in L4–L6 DRGs (n = 6/group). One-way ANOVA followed by Dunnett’s T3 multiple comparisons test *p < 0.05 versus the sham group. e εV1-2 reversed SNI-induced mechanical allodynia at 1, 5, and 7 days after drug application (n = 5–7/group). Mann-Whitney U test. **p < 0.01 versus the vehicle group. f Local application of ψεRACK decreased the 50% PWT in a dose-dependent manner (n = 5–7/group). Mann-Whitney U test. *p < 0.05 versus the vehicle group. g Pretreatment with gp91-tat failed to affect ψεRACK-induced mechanical allodynia (n = 5–6/group). Mann-Whitney U test. h Representative traces of DRG neurons elicited by the 1× rheobase from before and at 5 min, 15 min, and 30 min after the application of ψεRACK (20 μM). j(a) Summary rheobase data (n = 7). One-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s test. **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 versus the vehicle group. j(b) Number of APs (n = 7), Friedman test followed by Dunn’s multiple comparison test. **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 versus the vehicle group. i Representative traces of DRG neurons elicited by the 4× rheobase from before and after the application of εV1-2 (10 μM). k Summary rheobase data and the number of APs (n = 8). One-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s test. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 versus the corresponding vehicle group