Brain research bulletin
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Brain research bulletin · Mar 2016
Systemic administration of vitamins C and E attenuates nociception induced by chronic constriction injury of the sciatic nerve in rats.
Antioxidants have been tested to treat neuropathic pain, and α-Tocopherol (vitamin E--vit. E) and ascorbic acid (vitamin C--vit. C) are potent antioxidants. ⋯ Thus, treatment with a combination of vit. C+E was more effective to treat CCI-induced neuropathic pain than vitamins alone, and the antinociceptive effect was greater with co-administration of vit. C+E and gabapentin than with gabapentin alone.
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Brain research bulletin · Mar 2016
Peripheral neurosteroids enhance P2X receptor-induced mechanical allodynia via a sigma-1 receptor-mediated mechanism.
The role of peripheral neurosteroids and their related mechanisms on nociception have not been thoroughly investigated. Based on emerging evidence in the literature indicating that neurosteroids and their main target receptors, i.e., sigma-1, GABAA and NMDA, affect P2X-induced changes in neuronal activity, this study was designed to investigate the effect of peripherally injected dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEAS) and pregnenolone sulfate (PREGS) on P2X receptor-mediated mechanical allodynia in rats. Intraplantar injection of either neurosteroids alone did not produced any detectable changes in paw withdrawal frequency to the innocuous mechanical stimulation in naïve rats. ⋯ In order to investigate the potential role of peripheral sigma-1, GABAA and NMDA receptors in this facilitatory action, we pretreated animals with BD-1047 (a sigma-1 antagonist), muscimol (a GABAA agonist) or MK-801 (a NMDA antagonist) prior to DHEAS or PREGS+αβmeATP injection. Only BD-1047 effectively prevented the facilitatory effects induced by neurosteroids on αβmeATP-induced mechanical allodynia. Collectively, we have shown that peripheral neurosteroids potentiate P2X-induced mechanical allodynia and that this action is mediated by sigma-1, but not by GABAA nor NMDA, receptors.
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Brain research bulletin · Oct 2015
The spinal antinociceptive mechanism determined by systemic administration of BD1047 in zymosan-induced hyperalgesia in rats.
Although sigma-1 receptor (Sig-1R) antagonists have a potential antinociceptive effect in inflammatory diseases, the precise mechanism is not fully understood. The present study was aimed to elucidate the role of spinal neurons and microglia in the anti-nociceptive mechanism of BD1047 (a prototypical Sig-1R antagonist) using an inflammatory pain model based on intraplantar injection of zymosan. Oral pretreatment with BD1047 dose-dependently reduced zymosan-induced thermal and mechanical hyperalgesia as well as spinal neuronal activation including increased immunoreactivity of Fos, protein kinase C (PKC) and 'PKC-dependent phosphorylation of the NMDA receptor subunit 1' (pNR1). ⋯ In the spinal cord section, Sig-1R immunoreactivity was exclusively distributed in both spinal dorsal horn neurons and central endings of unmyelinated primary afferent fibers but not in glia. Intrathecal injection of BD1047 alleviated zymosan-induced hyperalgesia up to the level of oral administration. Taken together, our data imply that antinociceptive effect induced by oral treatment with BD1047 may be mediated, at least in part, by the inhibition of neuronal and microglial activation in the spinal cord triggered by inflammatory conditions.
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Brain research bulletin · Oct 2015
Enriched environment improves synaptic plasticity and cognitive deficiency in chronic cerebral hypoperfused rats.
Recent studies have indicated that environmental enrichment (EE) increases the sensorial and social stimulations and leads to strengthened plastic changes in the brain. In models of chronic cerebral hypoperfusion, the ability of an EE to restore the cognition depends on hippocampal synaptic plasticity. The mechanisms for this effect have not, however, been adequately studied. ⋯ In addition, conditions of the environment did not have any effect on baseline synaptic transmission and presynaptic plasticity, but housing the animals in EE rescued the impairment of LTP induction induced by 2-VO. These results suggest that EE ameliorates the LTP and spatial memory impairment induced by 2-VO. Our data indicated that the LTP recovery by EE in the rat models of 2-VO is probably mediated by post-synaptic mechanisms.
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Brain research bulletin · Sep 2015
Modulatory effects of inosine, guanosine and uridine on lipopolysaccharide-evoked increase in spike-wave discharge activity in Wistar Albino Glaxo/Rijswijk rats.
We showed previously that the number of spike-wave discharges (SWDs) was increased after intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), inosine (Ino) and muscimol alone whereas i.p. guanosine (Guo), uridine (Urd), bicuculline, theophylline and (+)-5-methyl-10,11-dihydro-5H-dibenzo(a,d)cyclohepten-5,10-imine maleate (MK-801) alone decreased the SWD number in Wistar Albino Glaxo/Rijswijk (WAG/Rij) rats. These drugs may exert their effects on absence epileptic activity mainly via proinflammatory cytokines-evoked increase in cortical excitability (such as LPS), GABAergic system (LPS, Ino, Urd, muscimol and bicuculline), glutamatergic system (LPS, Guo and MK-801) and adenosinergic system (LPS, Ino, Guo, Urd and theophylline). Both GABAergic system and glutamatergic system are involved in the pathomechanism of absence epilepsy, the LPS-evoked increase in absence epileptic activity and the pro- or antiepileptic effects of non-adenosine (non-Ado) nucleosides Ino, Guo and Urd. ⋯ Thus, we investigated whether Ino, Guo and Urd have also modulatory influence on LPS-evoked increase in SWD number using two different concentrations of each nucleoside in WAG/Rij rats. We demonstrated that Ino dose-dependently aggravated whereas Guo and Urd attenuated the LPS-evoked increase in SWD number. Our results suggest that different nucleosides have diverse effects on LPS-induced changes in absence epileptic activity.