inhibitory effects of dutasteride on tlr4: an in vitro pain study

Dutasteride was potentially proposed to control chronic pain by toll-like receptor 4 (tlr4) inhibition through its effect on tlr4 expression, myeloid differentiation primary response 88 (myd88), nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated b cells (nf-κb), secretory interleukin-1β (il-1β), and nitric oxide (no) in the lipopolysaccharides (lps)-stimulated u-87 mg cell line.the human astrocytoma u-87 mg cell line was cultured and incubated with 10 μg/ml of lps for 24 hours to create a neuro-inflammation model, using two different treatment approaches. the first approach included lps treatment for 24 hours, followed by dutasteride (20 μg/ml) incubation for the next 72 hours. in the second treatment approach, the cells were co-incubated with lps and dutasteride for 72 hours. expression of tlr4, myd88, nf-κbp65, and secretory il-1 was evaluated by western blotting while expression of no was assessed by no assay.tlr4, myd88, nf-κbp65, and secretory il-1β levels increased in lps-treated cells after 24 hours. dutasteride significantly decreased the secretion of no and also, the levels of tlr4, myd88, and nf-κbp65 in both treatment approaches. no difference in il-1β level was seen with the second treatment approach.dutasteride has anti-inflammatory properties and probably analgesic effects, by mechanisms different from conventional analgesics.