Anti-nociceptive and Anti-inflammatory Activities of Visnagin in Different Nociceptive and Inflammatory Mice Models

Pain management has been a severe public health issue throughout the world. Acute pain if not treated at the appropriate time can lead to chronic pain that can cause psychological and social distress. Nothing can be more rewarding than treating pain successfully for a physician. However, the use of chemical NSAIDs and opiate drugs has taken a toll on the patients with their unavoidable side effects. This study intends to explore the potential to treat pain by inhibiting nociception and inflammation with a safer, non-addictive, effective, and low-cost alternative agent from a natural source, visnagin. In vivo studies have been conducted using male Swiss albino mice as models for this research. Nociception was induced using different chemical and thermal stimuli such as acetic acid, glutamate, capsaicin, and formalin. To check for the anti-inflammatory properties, carrageenan was used to induce inflammation and the activity was assayed using peritoneal cavity leukocyte infiltration analysis and pro-inflammatory cytokine level comparison with the supplementation of visnagin at three different dosages. The findings of this study revealed that the visnagin treatment effectively attenuated the acetic acid-induced writhing response, glutamate-induced paw licking numbers, capsaicin-induced pain response, and formalin-induced biphasic licking incidences in the experimental mice models. Furthermore, the visnagin treatment remarkably suppressed the carrageenan-induced inflammation in mice, which is evident from the decreased leukocytes, mononuclear, and polymorphonuclear cell numbers in the mice. The levels of cytokines such as TNF-& alpha;, IL-1 & beta;, and IL-6 were effectively reduced by the visnagin treatment in the experimental mice. The results of open field test proved that the visnagin showed a better locomotor movement in the experimental mice. These results provided evidence for the potential activity of the visnagin against inflammatory and nociceptive responses in the mice.