Abstract:

Neuropathic pain often occurs during chemotherapy with oxaliplatin. AG490 has been shown to exert an antagonistic effect on inflammatory pain, but its effect on oxaliplatin-induced neuropathic pain remains poorly understood. This study sought to observe the analgesic effect of AG490 on acute neuropathic pain induced by a single oxaliplatin treatment and to address the possible mechanism. In this study, we established a model of oxaliplatin-induced acute neuropathic pain by intraperitoneal injection of 6 mg/kg oxaliplatin. On day 2 after injection,models were intraperitoneally injected with 1, 5, or 10 mg/kg AG490. Paw withdrawal threshold to mechanical stimuli and tail withdrawal latency to cold stimuli were determined. Western blot assay was performed to detect the expression of spinal phosphorylated signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (p-STAT3). Immunohistochemistry was used to determine the immunoreactivity of p-STAT3 and interleukin-6. Results demonstrated that paw withdrawal threshold and tail withdrawal latency were significantly increased by the treatment of AG490 in rats. There was no significant difference in the effect among the different doses of AG490. AG490 10 mg/kg decreased the expression of p-STAT3, the immunoreactivity of p-STAT3 and interleukin-6 in spinal cord of acute neuropathic pain rats. These findings confirm that AG490 can attenuate oxaliplatin-induced acute neuropathic pain and is associated with the inhibition in the JAK/STAT3 signaling pathway.

Key words: nerve regeneration, AG490, analgesia, oxaliplatin, cancer chemotherapy, neuropathic pain, phosphorylated STAT3, JAK/STAT signaling pathway, interleukin-6, neural regeneration