Aromatase inhibitors augment nociceptive behaviors in rats and enhance the excitability of sensory neurons.

ABSTRACT: Although aromatase inhibitors (AIs) are commonly used therapies for breast cancer, their use is limited because they produce arthralgia in a large number of patients. To determine whether AIs produce hypersensitivity in animal models of pain, we examined the effects of the AI, letrozole, on mechanical, thermal, and chemical sensitivity in rats. In ovariectomized (OVX) rats, administering a single dose of 1 or 5mg/kg letrozole significantly reduced mechanical paw withdrawal thresholds, without altering thermal sensitivity. Repeated injection of 5mg/kg letrozole in male rats produced mechanical, but not thermal, hypersensitivity that extinguished when drug dosing was stopped. A single dose of 5mg/kg letrozole or daily dosing of letrozole or exemestane in male rats also augmented flinching be

SUBMITTER: Robarge JD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4877294 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature