Department of Orthopaedics, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, P.R. China.
Department of Animal Science, College of Animal Science and Technology, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, Hunan, P.R. China.
Biosci Rep. 2018 Jan 25;38(1). doi: 10.1042/BSR20171554. Print 2018 Feb 28.
Pain represents a major clinical problem and one which has exercised generations of healthcare professionals. Earthworms are used as a traditional Chinese medicine, and have been applied pharmacologically and clinically since a long time in China. However, the analgesic effects of earthworm extract (EE) are seldom studied. Hence, we evaluated the analgesic effects of EE in mice. The obtained data showed that EE increased pain threshold and exhibited peripheral but not central analgesic effects in mice; evidenced by increased inhibition ratio in acetic acid writhing test and formalin test, whereas only slight increase in inhibition ratio in hot plate test and tail immersion test. In addition, EE decreased serum norepinephrine (NE), 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), and nitric oxide (NO) synthase (NOS) concentration, similar to other analgesic drugs like morphine and aspirin. In a nutshell, the obtained data have demonstrated that EE has peripheral analgesic properties and could be used as a promising analgesic drug.
疼痛是一个主要的临床问题，也是困扰历代医疗保健专业人员的问题。蚯蚓作为一种传统的中药，在中国很早就被应用于药理学和临床医学。然而，蚯蚓提取物（EE）的镇痛作用却很少被研究。因此，我们评估了 EE 在小鼠中的镇痛作用。研究数据表明，EE 提高了疼痛阈值，并表现出外周而非中枢的镇痛作用；在醋酸扭体试验和福尔马林试验中，抑制率增加，而在热板试验和尾部浸提试验中，抑制率仅略有增加。此外，EE 降低了血清去甲肾上腺素（NE）、5-羟色胺（5-HT）和一氧化氮合酶（NOS）的浓度，与其他镇痛药如吗啡和阿司匹林相似。总之，研究数据表明 EE 具有外周镇痛特性，可作为一种有前途的镇痛药。
