[Application of three artemisinin derivatives in neuropathic pain: evaluating co-curation of nociceptive and emotional syndromes in spinal cord ligation mice]

Abstract

In this study, on aspects of the nociceptive, anxiety and depressive syndromes in neuropathic pain (NP), the effects of dihydroartemisinine (DHA), artesunate (ART) and artemether (ARTN) (40 mg·kg⁻¹) were analyzed in the spinal cord ligation (SNL) mice. Clinical equivalent dose of the first-line drug for NP, pregabalin (PGB, 25 mg·kg⁻¹) and amitriptyline (ARP, 20 mg·kg⁻¹), were used as positive controls. General, from day 7 to 14, significant remissions of the nociceptive, anxiety and depressive behaviors were achieved by DHA, ART and ARTN separately. Moreover, on day 14, on aspects of the nociceptive behaviors, analyzed 1.5 h after the gavage administration, no significant difference between the shamed mice and mice administrated with DHA, ART and ARTN was detected; analyzed 3 h after the gavage, significant decreases of pain thresholds in ARTN, but not in DHA nor ART group, were detected as compared with thresholds measured 1.5 h; analyzed 24 h after gavage, pain thresholds in DHA, ART and ARTN were still higher than PGB, in spite of the significant decreases as compared to Sham group. On aspects of the anxiety and depressive behaviors, no significant difference was detected between the shamed mice and mice administrated with DHA nor ART. However, differences still remained between the shamed ones and ones administrated with ARTN. Preliminarily, the effects of DHA, ART and ARTN were consolidated in SNL mice. On aspects of the duration of analgesic effects and the control of negative emotion, ART and ARTN were proven more favorable than ARTN.

Keywords: artemisinin derivatives; mechanical allodynia; neuropathic pain; pain-emotional syndromes co-curation; pain-emotional syndromes comorbidity.