title: Paeoniflorin and Albiflorin Attenuate Neuropathic Pain via MAPK Pathway in Chronic Constriction Injury Rats.
abstract: Neuropathic pain remains as the most frequent cause of suffering and disability around the world. The isomers paeoniflorin (PF) and albiflorin (AF) are major constituents extracted from the roots of Paeonia (P.) lactiflora Pall. Neuroprotective effect of PF has been demonstrated in animal models of neuropathologies. However, only a few studies are related to the biological activities of AF and no report has been published on analgesic properties of AF about neuropathic pain to date. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of AF and PF against CCI-induced neuropathic pain in rat and explore the underlying mechanism. We had found that both PF and AF could inhibit the activation of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38 MAPK) pathway in spinal microglia and subsequent upregulated proinflammatory cytokines (interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α)). AF further displayed remarkable effects on inhibiting the activation of astrocytes, suppressing the overelevated expression of phosphorylation of c-Jun N-terminal kinases (p-JNK) in astrocytes, and decreasing the content of chemokine CXCL1 in the spinal cord. These results suggest that both PF and AF are potential therapeutic agents for neuropathic pain, which merit further investigation.
authors.affiliation: Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, 11 Beisanhuandonglu, Chaoyang Qu, Beijing 100029, China; Chengde Medical University, Hebei, Chengde 067000, China.
authors.forename: Jianyu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, 11 Beisanhuandonglu, Chaoyang Qu, Beijing 100029, China.
authors.forename: Linyuan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, 11 Beisanhuandonglu, Chaoyang Qu, Beijing 100029, China.
authors.forename: Jingxia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, 11 Beisanhuandonglu, Chaoyang Qu, Beijing 100029, China.
authors.forename: Chun
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32608, USA.
authors.forename: Zhihui
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, 11 Beisanhuandonglu, Chaoyang Qu, Beijing 100029, China.
authors.forename: Chenglong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, 11 Beisanhuandonglu, Chaoyang Qu, Beijing 100029, China.
authors.forename: Yingli
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, 11 Beisanhuandonglu, Chaoyang Qu, Beijing 100029, China.
authors.forename: Jianjun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang