• Laiche Djouhri.
• Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh 11472, KSA ldjouhri@ksu.edu.sa.
• Pain Med. 2016 Nov 1; 17 (11): 2082-2094.

BackgroundChronic inflammatory and peripheral neuropathic pain (PNP) is a major health problem for which effective drug treatment is lacking. The pathophysiology of these debilitating conditions is incompletely understood, but nerve growth factor (NGF) is believed to play a major role. NGF-antagonism has previously been shown to prevent pain hypersensitivity in rodent models of acute inflammatory pain and PNP, but most of those animal studies did not address the more clinically relevant issue of whether NGF-antagonism provides relief of established chronic pain behavior. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate whether blocking NGF actions with a humanized anti-NGF monoclonal antibody (PG110) would reverse/attenuate established pain hypersensitivity in rat models of chronic/persistent inflammatory pain and PNP.MethodsThe complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA) rat model of persistent inflammatory pain, and the L5 spinal nerve axotomy (SNA) model of PNP, were used in the present study. The effect of a single intravenous injection (10, 30, and 300 µg/kg) of an anti-NGF antibody PG110 on heat and mechanical hypersensitivity was assessed 5 and 7 days after CFA and SNA, respectively.ResultsCompared to vehicle treated group, PG110 dose dependently attenuated established heat and mechanical hypersensitivity induced by CFA, but not that induced by SNA. The anti-allodynic and anti-hyperalgesic effects of PG110 in the CFA model were similar to those of the positive control naproxen (30 mg/kg, i.v.).ConclusionThese findings suggest that therapies that target NGF or its receptors may be effective for treatment of persistent/chronic inflammatory pain, but probably not PNP.© 2016 American Academy of Pain Medicine. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

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