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Background:The mechanism of action of sweet substance-induced analgesia is thought to involve activation of the endogenous opioid system. The nitric oxide (NO) pathway has a pivotal role in pain modulation of analgesic compounds such as opioids.Objectives:We investigated the role of NO and the opioid receptor-mediated system in the analgesic effect of sucrose ingestion in mice.Materials and Methods:We evaluated the effect of intraperitoneal administration of 10 mg/kg of NO synthase inhibitor, N-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) and 20 mg/kg of opioid receptor antagonist, naltrexone on the tail flick response in sucrose ingesting mice.Results:Sucrose ingestion for 12 days induced a statistically significant increase in the latency of tail flick response which was unmodified by L-NAME, but partially inhibited by naltrexone administration.Conclusions:Sucrose-induced nociception may be explained by facilitating the release of endogenous opioid peptides. Contrary to some previously studied pain models, the NO/cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) pathway had no role in thermal hyperalgesia in our study. We recommend further studies on the involvement of NO in other animals and pain models.

Backgrounds: The absence of a gold-standard treatment for COVID-19 infection encourages clinicians to benefit from multipotential medications in the treatment of COVID-19. The current controlled randomized clinical trial tried to evaluate the efficacy and safety of pentoxifylline (PTX) as an adjuvant therapy in moderate to severe COVID-19 infection. Methods: In this randomized controlled clinical trial, two groups of hospitalized patients with moderate to severe COVID-19 infection were randomized by the block randomization method to either receive standard protocol therapy or standard protocol therapy plus pentoxifylline 400 mg TDS for 14 days. Results: The results showed a greater improvement in the proinflammatory biomarkers in the intervention group. Oxygen saturation, hemoglobin, and platelet levels were also improved to a higher level among pentoxifylline recipients. The mortality rate was reported 4% and 32% in the intervention and control groups, respectively. One out 13 patients with severe COVID-19 infection expired in the intervention group, while 20 out of 28 patients expired in the control group, showing about 10 times higher mortality rate compared to the pentoxifylline recipients. Conclusion: Pentoxifylline increased the survival rate of COVID-19 patients and played as a preventive role for COVID-related mortality and morbidity such as acute respiratory distress syndrome.