Allen I. White Professor and Department Chair
Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy
E-Mail: quockr@wsu.edu
Pharmacy site:
http://www.pharmacy.wsu.edu/pharmSci/quock.html
Phone: (509) 335-5956
Hyperbaric oxygen (HBO2) therapy has been approved by the FDA
for a limited set of clinical indications, although there are clinical
reports that HBO2 therapy appears to be effective in a
broader range of conditions, including several examples of chronic pain
(complex regional pain syndrome, fibromyalgia syndrome, migraine
headache, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic osteomyelitis and other
conditions). Exposure to HBO2 causes a non-uniform
increase in levels of NO metabolites (nitrate and nitrite) in various
brain regions and spinal cord of rats indicating that HBO2
can stimulate production of NO. Enhanced NO activity in the
central nervous system may underlie some of the behavioral effects of
HBO2. We were the first to systemically investigate the
pattern of analgesic response to single and multiple HBO2
treatments and to hypothesize a mechanism of analgesic effect. HBO2-induced
antinociception is sensitive to antagonism by inhibitors of NO
production and opioid receptor antagonists, suggesting that the
antinociception is mediated by NO and opioid mechanisms. Repeated
exposure to HBO2 produces an antinociceptive response of
unusually long duration, possibly similar to the clinical reports of
relief of chronic pain conditions by intermittent HBO2
treatments. We are currently broadening our investigation of HBO2-induced
antinociception to determine whether it is effective in suppression of
neuropathic pain and whether gene changes might underlie its unusually
long duration of action.
Nitrous oxide (N2O or more commonly known as laughing gas) is
another medical gas that is notable for its anesthetic, analgesic,
anxiolytic and euphoric properties. We identified and localized in the
rat brain the opioid receptor subtypes that mediate nitrous oxide
antinociception, provided the first chemical evidence for N2O-induced
neuronal release of endogenous opioid peptides in rats and have
implicated a regulatory role for nitric oxide (NO) in the neuronal
release of opioid peptides. We have also reported that N2O
produces significant relief of anxiety in different animal models of
experimental anxiety. This anxiolytic effect is independent of the
antinociceptive effect of N2O and appears to be mediated by
benzodiazepine sites on the
g-aminobutyric
acid (GABA) receptor and also involve NO. This anxiolytic effect
also appears to be mimicked by HBO2.
The present research into the mechanisms of pharmacological action of
HBO2 and N2O
utilizes a combination of stereotaxic neurosurgical, behavioral,
pharmacological, neurochemical, microdialysis, pharmacogenetic and
molecular biology approaches.
Biographical Information
Raymond M. Quock, Professor, obtained his B.S. degree in biology from
the University of San Francisco in 1970 and his Ph.D. in pharmacology
from the University of Washington in 1974. He spent one year as an
instructor in pharmacology at the University of Washington (1974-75) and
the next four years as an assistant professor of pharmacology at the
University of Pacific School of Pharmacy in Stockton, California
(1975-79). Dr. Quock then worked at the Marquette University School of
Dentistry in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (1979-89), moving through the ranks of
assistant professor, associate professor and eventually to full
professor. He also held adjunct positions at the Medical College of
Wisconsin and the V.A. Medical Center. He then left Milwaukee for the
University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford (1989-98), where
he was professor of pharmacology and also adjunct professor of
pharmacology in anesthesiology at the University of Illinois College of
Medicine in Chicago (1993-98). Dr. Quock joined Washington State
University as professor and chair of Pharmaceutical Sciences in the
College of Pharmacy in January 1999. He is a member of both the
Neuroscience and Pharmaceutical Sciences graduate programs. After
returning to teaching and research in 2002. He was appointed to a second
term as department chair in July 2007 and was named the Allen I. White
Professor in August 2007.
Recent Publications
L.M. Zelinski, Y. Ohgami, E. Chung, D.Y. Shirachi and
R.M. Quock. A prolonged NO-dependent, opioid-mediated
antinociceptive effect of hyperbaric oxygen in mice. Journal of
Pain 10:167-172 (2009).
M. Ishikawa, J. Moyer, J.A. Wolf, P. Mu, R.M. Quock,
N.M. Davies, X.T. Hu, O.M. Schlüter and Y. Dong. Homeostatic
synapse-driven membrane plasticity in nucleus accumbens neurons. Journal
of Neuroscience 29:5820-5831 (2009)
Y. Ohgami, C.C. Zylstra, L.P. Quock, E. Chung, D.Y.
Shirachi and R.M. Quock. Nitric oxide in hyperbaric
oxygen-induced acute antinociception in mice. NeuroReport
20:1325-1329 (2009)
L.M. Zelinski, Y. Ohgami and R.M. Quock.
Exposure to nitrous oxide stimulates a nitric oxide-dependent neuronal
release of β-endorphin in ventricular cisternally-perfused rats.
Brain Research 1300:37-40 (2009)
J.L. Cope, E. Chung, Y. Ohgami and R.M. Quock. Antagonism
of the antinociceptive effect of nitrous oxide by inhibition of enzyme
activity or expression of nitric oxide synthase. European
Journal of Pharmacology
626:234-238
(2010)
E. Chung, L.M. Zielinski, Y. Ohgami, D.Y. Shirachi and R.M. Quock.
Hyperbaric oxygen treatment induces a two-phase antinociceptive response
of unusually long duration in mice. Journal of Pain (in
press, 2010).
E-publication 23 Apr 2010. E-publication 23 Apr 2010.
E-publication 23 Apr 2010.
