الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract The main goal of this work is to study the probable anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects of verapamil and N-acetylcysteine (NAC) in experimental rats. Adult Albino rats, weighing 150-200 gm, were used and randomly allocated into five groups each containing 7 rats. group I (normal control) which received saline (1 ml/kg), group II (edema control) which received saline and subjected to formalin test, group III animals received diclofenac sodium (5 mg/kg), group IV animals received NAC (125 mg/kg) and group V animals received verapamil (8 mg/Kg). All drugs have been given orally 1 hour before subjecting the rats to formalin test or thermal stimulus. Hot plate latent time was recorded for antinociceptive evaluation. Paw edema thickness and biochemical parameters were recorded for anti-inflammatory evaluation. The main findings of the experiments can be summarized as follows: 1) Administration of single dose of NAC showed significant prolongation of hot plate latency time at 1 hour when compared to normal rats while verapamil showed significant prolongation of hot plate latency time at 1 and 2 hours when compared to normal control group and NAC group values. 2) Administration of NAC and verapamil significantly decreased paw edema thickness at 3, 4 and 6 hours when compared to edema control values. 3) When compared to the edema control group values, there was a statistically significant decrease in serum COX-2, CRP, NOS and TNF-α level NAC and verapamil groups. There was a statistically significant decrease in serum MPO level in rats of verapamil group when compared to edema control group values. Administration of verapamil caused a statistically significant decrease in serum TNF-α and MPO levels when compared to the diclofenac sodium group value. In accordance, a marked improvement of histopathological findings was observed with both drugs. In conclusion, the present study suggests that verapamil and NAC have a potent analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects comparable to diclofenac sodium. Further studies are needed with different doses and may be for longer duration, on a larger sample size in order to be able to fully investigate the analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects of verapamil and NAC. Also, more studies targeting the side effects of using both drugs should be addressed. |