title: Effect of flupirtine on the growth and viability of U373 malignant glioma cells.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Flupirtine is a non-opioid analgesic without antipyretic or antiphlogistic properties but with favorable tolerability in humans. This analgesic also exhibits neuroprotective activities. Furthermore, flupirtine antagonizes glutamate- and NMDA-induced intracellular levels of Ca(2+) and counteracts the effects of focal cerebral ischemia. Although flupirtine has been used to relieve pain caused by different diseases and clinical procedures, information on the safety and efficacy of flupirtine is limited. The present study was conducted to investigate the neuroprotective effects of flupirtine on U373 malignant glioma (MG) cell lines.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cell viability and cell cycle analysis was performed by MTT assay and flow cytometry, respectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Variations in the growth of U373 MG cells in 5 mM N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA), 1 mM flupirtine, and combined treatment indicated the antagonistic effects of NMDA and flupirtine on MG cell lines. The variation in the percentage of gated cell population in different cell cycle phases showed significant variations after 48 h of treatment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Flupirtine has neuroprotective effect of on U373 MG cells, which limits its use in the pain management of brain tumors. This property warrants further studies using animal models and large-scale clinical trials.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Sri Ramachandra University, Chennai 600118, India.
authors.forename: Elango
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Panchanathan
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences, Sri Ramachandra University, Chennai 600118, India.
authors.forename: Gnanasambandan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ramanathan
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences, Sri Ramachandra University, Chennai 600118, India.
authors.forename: Bhaskar Venkata Kameswara Subrahmanya
authors.initials: BV
authors.lastname: Lakkakula
keywords: Flupirtine; N-Methylaspartate; analgesics; glioma