Comparison of the Effects of Zonisamide and Flupirtine on Paclitaxel Induced Peripheral Neuropathy in Rats
FC05-FC08
Correspondence
Dr. Bhuvaneswari Krishnamurthy,
Post Box No.1674, Peelamedu, Coimbatore-641004, Tamil Nadu, India.
E-mail: nandabhuvana@gmail.com
Introduction: Many peripheral and central causes lead to neuropathic pain disorders. Effective treatment of neuropathic pain is not completely manageable and hence, it becomes necessary to evaluate the application of Zonisamide as a sodium channel and T-type calcium (Ca+) current inhibitors and Flupirtine by activation of potassium (K) channel through N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor inhibition in the treatment of neuropathic pain.
Aim: To analyze the analgesic effect of Zonisamide and Flupirtine in paclitaxel induced neuropathic pain model in rats by hot plate and cold allodynia test.
Materials and Methods: Total of six groups of animals, each with six rats were given with single intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of 1 mg/kg of paclitaxel on four alternate days (day 0, 2, 4, and 6). Drugs Zonisamide (50 mg/kg daily for group 2, 100 mg/kg daily for group 3, Flupirtine (10 mg/kg, daily for group 4, 20 mg/kg daily for group 5) and Gabapentin daily for group 6 were administered in the dosages per group from days 0 to 7. Nociceptive tests were done for all animals on days 0, 7, 14, 21, 28 to assess the pain threshold. Students t-test was used to analyze the statistical significance.
Results: In our study, on the 21st day of testing we observed that 100 mg/kg dosage of Zonisamide group has shown a significant increase in reaction time suggesting analgesic effect. Prominent increase in the reaction time was also observed that on day 14 of testing, both the Gabapentin and Flupirtine groups showed an earlier analgesic effects when compared with the Zonisamide group.
Conclusion: Zonisamide and Flupirtine showed anti-nociceptive activity in the Paclitaxel model of peripheral neuropathy compared with the standard treatment of Gabapentin.