GABAPENTIN, ALONE AND ASSOCIATED
WITH TRAMADOL REDUCES PERIPHERAL PACLITAXEL-INDUCED NEUROPATHY IN RATS.

CRISTINA ELENA ZBÂRCEA, SIMONA NEGREŞ*, CORNEL CHIRIŢĂ
Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacy Department, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Carol Davila”, Traian Vuia 6, Sect. 2, 020956, Bucharest, Romania
*corresponding author: simona_negres@yahoo.com
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Abstract:

Paclitaxel is an antineoplastic drug widely used in metastatic breast cancer, in advanced and metastatic ovarian, and in pulmonary carcinoma [5, 6, 8, 9, 11]. Peripheral neurotoxicity is a common, dose-related side effect of paclitaxel therapy. We set out to investigate the efficacy of gabapentin, of tramadol and of the association of the two drugs in prophylaxy of pain induced with paclitaxel. Male Wistar rats were induced neuropathy by intraperitoneal (i.p.) administration of 2 mg/kg-bw paclitaxel, once daily, for 4 days. One group of animals served as control and the other three groups were administered, concomitantly with paclitaxel, with gabapentin 150 mg/kg-bw per os, tramadol 5 mg/kg-bw per os and gabapentin 150 mg/kg-bw + tramadol 5 mg/kg-bw per os. Assessment of allodynia and of hyperalgesia was performed before and 4 days after administration of paclitaxel by measuring mechanical-induced sensitivity to pain with Dynamic Plantar Aesthesiometer (Ugo Basile, Italy).
 Both pretreatment with gabapentin and with association (gabapentin + tramadol) exerted a small but consistent (p < 0.05) reduction of applied force and of time to response compared to control group treated only with paclitaxel. Our research is a step forward in finding the suitable drug combination aiming at the prophylaxy of paclitaxel-induced neuropathy.

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