Antinociceptive effects of systemic tanshinone IIA on visceral and somatic persistent nociception and pain hypersensitivity in rats.
Previous studies showed that tanshinone IIA (TIIA), an important lipophilic component of Danshen, has been well-established to exhibit various neuroprotective actions in the nervous system. Although we previously reported that TIIA had a significant anti-nociceptive effect in complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA)-induced pain, it is surprisingly noted that few pharmacological studies have been carried out to explore the possible analgesic action of TIIA in animals and the appropriate indications for treatment of clinical pain remain unclear. Therefore, in the present study, by using both somatic and visceral pain models, the antinociceptive and antihyperalgesic effects of TIIA were evaluated by intraperitoneal administration in rats. In the bee venom (BV) test, when compared with saline controls, systemic pre- and post-treatment with TIIA resulted in an apparent antinociception against persistent spontaneous nociception (PSN) and primary heat and mechanical hypersensitivity, while for the mirror-image heat hypersensitivity, only pre-treatment was effective. Moreover, in the formalin test, the antinociception of TIIA was significant for both phases 1 and 2 in the pretreatment groups, but only effective for phase 2 in the post-treatment group. In the acetic acid writhing test, the number of writhes was effectively blocked by both pre- and post-treatment of TIIA. Taken together, these results provide a new line of evidence showing that TIIA is also able to produce analgesia against various 'phenotypes' of nociception and hypersensitivity.
The Department of Neurology, The 88th Hospital of PLA, Hongmen Road 6, Taian 271000, PR China. Electronic address: falecao@163.com.
Fa-Le
FL
Cao
The Department of Thoracic Surgery, The 88th Hospital of PLA, Hongmen Road 6, Taian 271000, PR China.
Xue-Jia
XJ
Su
Institute for Biomedical Sciences of Pain and Institute for Functional Brain Disorders, Tangdu Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an 710038, PR China.
Yan
Y
Wang
The Department of Pathology, The 88th Hospital of PLA, Hongmen Road 6, Taian 271000, PR China.
Min
M
Xu
The Medical Department, The 88th Hospital of PLA, Hongmen Road 6, Taian 271000, PR China.
Liang
L
Shan
D045784:Abietanes / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000700:Analgesics / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects; D008297:Male; D010146:Pain / Q000188:drug therapy*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley
D045784:Abietanes; D000700:Analgesics; C021751:tanshinone
Acetic acid-induced writhing; Bee venom test; Formalin test; Pain; Tanshinone IIA