the role of muscarinic and serotonergic-2a receptors in the antinociceptive effect of pregabalin

Introduction: pregabalin (pgb) is an analog of gamma-aminobutyric acid (gaba) with antinociceptive, antihyperalgesic and antiallodynic properties which frequently used in clinical pain management. effect of pbg in neuropathic pain, incisional-inflammatory injury, post-operational pain, chronic pain and experimental pain models have already shown. it has been already known that muscarinic and serotonergic-2a receptors have a role in pain transmission. methods: in this study, role of muscarinic and serotonergic-2a receptors in antinociceptive effect of pregabalin were evaluated with hot-plate and tail flick tests and effects of administered drugs on locomotor activity were measured with automated activity cage.results: pgb treatment (30 and 100mg/kg) caused longer latency in hot plate and tail flick tests than saline group. that antinociceptive effect of pregabalin abolished by ketanserin (1mg/kg) and atropine (1mg/kg) treatment. conclusion: however, there is lack of knowledge about role of nociceptive pathways underlying pregabalin mediated antinociception. our results suggest that cholinergic and serotonergic systems have a role in antinociceptive effect of pgb which has seen in these somatic pain tests.