Epifriedelinol Ameliorates the Neuropathic Pain and Recovers the Function in Spinal Cord Injury by Downregulation of Neuronal Apoptosis and NMDA Receptor

Epifriedelinol Ameliorates the Neuropathic Pain and Recovers the Function in Spinal Cord Injury by Downregulation of Neuronal Apoptosis and NMDA Receptor

Haiying Guan,¹ Ting Yan,² Dongyang Wu³ and Alok Shiomurti Tripathi^4,5

¹Department of Spine Surgery, Xi’an Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Xi’an, China
²Department of Ultrasound, Xi’an Honghui Hospital, Xi’an, China
³Department of Neurosurgery, General Hospital of Northern Theater Command, Shenyang, China
⁴Department of Pharmacology, Amity Institute of Pharmacy, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
⁵Kannur College of Pharmacy, Kannur, Kerala, India

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is commonly associated with neuropathic pain, which affects large population. Thus, the presented investigation evaluates the beneficial effect of epifriedelinol against SCI-associated neuropathic pain. SCI injury was induced in rats by clip-compression and rats were treated with epifriedelinol 100 and 200 mg/kg, i.p. for 21 days after the induction of SCI. The effect of epifriedelinol was assessed on neuropathic pain by mechanical allodynia and locomotor function. Level of inflammatory cytokines were assessed in the neuronal tissue using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and expression of caspase-3 and Bcl2 protein were assessed by western blot assay. Data of investigation reveals that epifriedelinol reduces mechanical allodynia in SCI injured rats. Moreover, it also improves locomotor function in SCI injured rats. There was significant decrease in level of interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α in the neuronal tissues of epifriedelinol-treated group than negative control group. Moreover, treatment with epifriedelinol ameliorates the altered expression of caspase 3, Bcl2 and GluN1 and level of glutamate in neuronal tissue of SCI-injured rats. In conclusion, data reveal that epifriedelinol treatment protects neuropathic pain associated with spinal cord injury by downregulating the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor function.

Keywords —— epifriedelinol; glutamate; NMDA; spinal cord injury

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Tohoku J. Exp. Med 2022, 258, 143-148.

Correspondence: Dongyang Wu, Department of Neurosurgery, General Hospital of Northern Theater Command, Shenyang 110015, China.

e-mail: dongyang3603@sina.com