Abstract

AMELIORATIVE EFFECTS OF MURRAYA KOENIGII IN CHRONIC CONSTRICTION INJURY OF SCIATIC NERVE INDUCED NEUROPATHIC PAIN IN RATS

Deepika Saini, Tapan Behl*, Ishneet Kaur, Meenu Nagpal, Heena Goel,
Rajesh K. Pandey

Abstract

Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage and is induced by noxious stimuli. The sensation of pain is a protective mechanism for the body and it initiates nociceptive reflexes. Neuropathic pain is defined as pain initiated or caused by a primary lesion or dysfunction in the nervous system, either central nervous system (CNS) or peripheral nervous system (PNS). As the onset of neuropathic pain may be delayed after nerve injury, pain may still be present after healing is complete. This makes proper diagnosis and early treatment difficult. Moreover, neuropathic pain commonly occurs as a secondary symptom in diseases like diabetes, cancer and herpes zoster infection; it may also occur with treatments such as chemotherapeutics or cytotoxic drugs. The various first line drugs available for neuropathic pain (such as gabapentin, pregabalin, duloxetime, tricyclic antidepressants etc.,) are not found to be fully effective in the treatment. Henceforth, alternative treatments are being researched upon. Murraya koenigii is one such possible alternative, which is considered in the present study and is successfully found to provide positive results towards the prevention and maintenance of peripheral neuropathic pain due to its anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and cellular calcium modulatory action.

Keywords: Thermal hyperalgesia, cold allodynia, reduced glutathione (GSH), pregabalin, neuroprotective