Curr Opin Invest Dr
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Neuropathic pain is a common and potentially treatable cause of considerable lifelong morbidity. Effective pharmacological treatments are scarce, but one group of drugs that has shown promise is the antiepileptics. ⋯ This review discusses the available evidence for the postulated mechanisms of action of gabapentin. Understanding the mechanism of action of this agent may well lead to the development of safer and more effective antineuropathic drugs.
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Curr Opin Invest Dr · Jan 2006
Review5-HT(1A) receptor activation: new molecular and neuroadaptive mechanisms of pain relief.
Guided by an understanding of signal transduction in pain-processing systems, high-efficacy 5-hydroxytryptamine (5HT)1A receptor activation, by means of F-13640, has been discovered as a new molecular mechanism of pain relief in laboratory animals, inducing two neuroadaptive phenomena. Firstly, this activation cooperates with nociceptive stimulation, paradoxically causing analgesia, and secondly, inverse tolerance develops so that the resulting analgesia grows rather than decays. ⋯ Indeed, F-13640 produces long-lasting, preemptive and, most remarkably, curative-like actions in neuropathic allodynia. Although awaiting proof-of-concept evidence in humans, high-efficacy 5-HT(1A) receptor activation may uniquely challenge the opioids for pain therapy.