Gabapentin alleviates chronic spontaneous pain and acute hypoxia-related pain in a mouse model of sickle cell disease.

ABSTRACT: Pain is the main complication of sickle cell disease (SCD). Individuals with SCD experience acute pain episodes and chronic daily pain, both of which are managed with opioids. Opioids have deleterious side effects and use-associated stigma that make them less than ideal for SCD pain management. After recognizing the neuropathic qualities of SCD pain, clinically-approved therapies for neuropathic pain, including gabapentin, now present unique non-opioid based therapies for SCD pain management. These experiments explored the efficacy of gabapentin in relieving evoked and spontaneous chronic pain, and hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R)-induced acute pain in mouse models of SCD. When administered following H/R, a single dose of gabapentin alleviated mechanical hypersensitivity in SCD mice by decreasi

SUBMITTER: Sadler KE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6786911 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature