ArticlePain and therapy2022
Clinical Observation of the Effects of Oral Opioid on Inflammatory Cytokines and Gut Microbiota in Patients with Moderate to Severe Cancer Pain: A Retrospective Cohort Study.
Article in Pain and therapy, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- JK5G postbiotics modulate gut microbiota and metabolome to alleviate cancer-related pain: a randomized controlled trial with multi-omics integration.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Trial
- A randomized controlled trial to compare the effect of oxycodone and sufentanil on postoperative analgesia and immune function for laparoscopic resection of colorectal cancer.BMC anesthesiology · 2025Trial
- Improvements in Social Quality of Life for Recovering Addicts Receiving Dental Implant Rehabilitation.Cureus · 2026Article
- Short-term oxycodone exposure produces delayed and persistent gut microbiome disruption in mice.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Melatonin Partially Attenuates Oxycodone-Induced Placental Stress Signaling and Fetal Brain Apoptosis in a Sex-Specific Manner.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- From bugs to behavior: targeting the gut-brain interface for addiction therapeutics.Gut microbes · 2025Review
- Gut Microbiota: A Modulator and Therapeutic Target for Chronic Pain.Molecular neurobiology · 2025Review
- Progresses in Questing for the Truth of Opioid-Related Constipation in Cancer Patients.Journal of cellular and molecular medicine · 2025Review
- Evaluating the Efficacy of Secondary Metabolites in Antibiotic-Induced Dysbiosis: A Narrative Review of Preclinical Studies.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Dietary supplement ofFrontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
- The Gut-Brain Axis in Opioid Use Disorder: Exploring the Bidirectional Influence of Opioids and the Gut Microbiome-A Comprehensive Review.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Opioid Use and Gut Dysbiosis in Cancer Pain Patients.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Sodium acetate and sodium butyrate attenuate diarrhea in yak calves by regulating gut microbiota and metabolites.Heliyon · 2024Article
- Blocking IL-17A prevents oxycodone-induced depression-like effects and elevation of IL-6 levels in the ventral tegmental area and reduces oxycodone-derived physical dependence in rats.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2024Article
- Gut Microbiota Dysbiosis and Inflammation Dysfunction in Late-Life Depression: An Observational Cross-Sectional Analysis.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2024Article
- Gut-Brain Crosstalk and the Central Mechanisms of Orofacial Pain.Brain sciences · 2023Review
- Personalized Medicine in Cancer Pain Management.Journal of personalized medicine · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
introductionRecent studies have revealed that inflammation is a key factor in the causation of opioid analgesic tolerance. Opioids can induce a massive release of inflammatory cytokines and disruption of intestinal barrier function by activating Toll-like receptors 2/4 (TLR2/4), eventually resulting to sustained bacterial transmission and persistent systemic inflammation. However, most of the relevant analyses available were conducted at the level of animal experiments. It is necessary to explore the potential association between opioid tolerance and inflammatory cytokines and gut microbiota in patients with cancer pain.
methodsWe retrospectively analyzed cytokines, lymphocyte subsets and blood cells in 186 cancer patients to examine the effect of oral opioids on inflammatory cytokines in patients with moderate to severe cancer pain. The control group constituted tumor patients without cancer pain, while patients with moderate to severe cancer pain taking oral opioids made up the observation group. Fecal samples collected from 25 cancer patients were also analyzed for the composition and diversity of gut microbiota using 16S rRNA sequencing to explore the association between oral opioids and dynamic changes in gut microbiota.
resultsPatients with moderate to severe cancer pain taking oxycodone had significantly higher levels of IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, TNF-α, and IFN-γ than those in the control group (p < 0.001). The difference in the relative abundance of Lactobacillus (p = 0.025), Anaerostipes (p = 0.034), Megamonas (p = 0.0080), Monoglobus (p = 0.0080), and the Rikenellaceae_RC9_gut_group (p = 0.022) between the opioid and control group was significant.
conclusionOral oxycodone can cause abnormal changes in cytokine levels and gut microbiota of patients with moderate to severe cancer pain, prompting chronic systemic inflammation. Analgesic tolerance induced by long-term oxycodone use could be closely related to the consistent upregulation of IL-6 and TNF-α levels.
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