Journal of Pharmacological Sciences
Online ISSN : 1347-8648
Print ISSN : 1347-8613
ISSN-L : 1347-8613
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Dragon’s Blood Inhibits Chronic Inflammatory and Neuropathic Pain Responses by Blocking the Synthesis and Release of Substance P in Rats
Yu-Sang LiJun-Xian WangMei-Mei JiaMin LiuXiao-Jun LiHe-Bin Tang
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JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

2012 Volume 118 Issue 1 Pages 43-54

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Abstract

As a traditional Chinese medicine, dragon’s blood (DB) is widely used in treating various pains for thousands of years due to its potent anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects. In the present study, we observed that intragastric administration of DB at dosages of 0.14, 0.56, and 1.12 g/kg potently inhibited paw edema, hyperalgesia, cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) protein expression, or preprotachykinin-A mRNA expression in carrageenan-inflamed or sciatic nerve–injured (chronic constriction injury) rats, respectively. A short-term (15 s or 10 min) pre-exposure of cultured rat dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons to DB (0.3, 3, and 30 μg/ml) or its component cochinchinenin B (CB; 0.1, 1, and 10 μM) blocked capsaicin-evoked increases in both the intracellular calcium ion concentration and the substance P release. Moreover, a long-term (180 min) exposure of cultured rat DRG neurons to DB or CB significantly attenuated bradykinin-induced substance P release. These findings indicate that DB exerts anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects by blocking the synthesis and release of substance P through inhibition of COX-2 protein induction and intracellular calcium ion concentration. Therefore, DB may serve as a promising potent therapeutic agent for treatment of chronic pain, and its effective component CB might partly contribute to anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects.

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© The Japanese Pharmacological Society 2011
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