Dragon’s Blood Inhibits Chronic Inflammatory and Neuropathic Pain Responses by Blocking the Synthesis and Release of Substance P in Rats

Abstract

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.

Involvement of Substance P/Neurokinin-1 Receptor in the Analgesic and Anticancer Activities of Minimally Toxic Fraction from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Liu-Shen-Wan <i>in Vitro</i>

“…DRGs play an important role in the initiation, transmission, and maintenance of neuropathic pain, as this involves neuropeptides, ion channels, and Gq-proteincoupled receptors, 16,18,27) and therefore, a cell culture model using DRG neurons was chosen in the present study. Our previous study indicated that bradykinin could evoke substance P release, as well as the expression of the NK-1 receptor in this model.…”

“…29) In addition, cinobufacini, an extract from Calculus bovis, induced apoptosis in HepG2 cells through mitochondria-and caspasedependent pathways. 16,[30][31][32][33][34] We found that the LSWS induced mitochondria-mediated apoptosis at a higher concentration (1-100 µg/mL). Therefore, the NK-1 receptor, as well as Bcl-2/ Bax, apparently takes part in the LSWS-induced growth inhibition in HepG2 cells.…”

“…Except for cells that belonged to the control group, all other cultured cells were exposed to bradykinin (10 µM) or to both bradykinin (10 µM) and LSWS (10 µg/mL) for 3 h. The substance P content in the culture medium was measured by a highly sensitive radioimmunoassay as described previously. 16) Immunocytochemical Staining of the NK-1 Receptor in DRG Cells The most important endogenous receptor for substance P is the NK-1 receptor.…”

Efecto antinflamatorio in vitro de los extractos etanólicos de cuatro plantas medicinales peruanas

“…El tratamiento clínico del dolor crónico por antinflamatorios no esteroideos (AINE), esteroides, antidepresivos, antiepilépticos, y/o medicamentos opioides, sigue siendo insatisfactorio en la mayoría de los casos, y es un reto para los médicos e investigadores que se han comprometido a buscar nuevos analgésicos con gran potencia analgésica, con nulos efectos secundarios o que sean relativamente menores (4) . El tratamiento con plantas medicinales, utilizado desde tiempos ancestrales, es una alternativa para el alivio de estos síntomas (5) .…”

“…Dentro de los mecanismos de acción estudiados, se han demostrado efectos inhibitorios sobre enzimas como la COX-1, COX-2, y 5-LOX, las cuales tienen un papel fundamental en las principales vías implicadas en los procesos inflamatorios (7)(8)(9) . Asimismo, con el aumento en el conocimiento de la neurobiología y la fisiopatología del dolor, se han encontrado nuevos mecanismos antinflamatorios y analgésicos, como receptores del potencial transitorio vanilloid tipo 1 (TRPV1), receptores de cannabinoides (CB2), inhibidores de la amida de ácido graso hidrolasa (FAAH), los receptores del subtipo GABA-A o receptores de imidazolina I2, que también se encuentran en plantas medicinales tradicionalmente usadas (4,10,11) . En nuestro país se han encontrado muchas plantas oriundas utilizadas, tradicionalmente, para el tratamiento del dolor e inflamación; dentro de las más usadas se encuentran: Croton lechleri "sangre de drago" (12) ; Chenopodium ambrosioides L. "paico" (13) , Peperomia congona Sodiro "congona" (14) y…”