Vol. 302, Issue 3, 1168-1175, September 2002

Comparison of Antiepileptic Drugs Tiagabine, Lamotrigine, and Gabapentin in Mouse Models of Acute, Prolonged, and Chronic Nociception

Tinna M. Laughlin, Kevin V. Tram, George L. Wilcox and Angela K. Birnbaum

Departments of Pharmacology (T.M.L., G.L.W.), Neuroscience (G.L.W.), Medical School, and Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology (A.K.B.), Epilepsy Research and Education Program, College of Pharmacy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota (K.V.T.)

Some antiepileptic drugs have been shown to be clinically effective in the treatment of neuropathic pain. This study determined whether the new antiepileptic drug tiagabine, a GABA uptake inhibitor, is efficacious in mice in a broad range of nociceptive tests (hot-plate, formalin, and dynorphin-induced chronic allodynia) and compared tiagabine's potency with two other antiepileptic drugs, gabapentin and lamotrigine. Intraperitoneally administered tiagabine, but not lamotrigine, gabapentin, or i.t. tiagabine, produced dose-dependent antinoception in the hot-plate test. A 5-min pretreatment with tiagabine (2-29 nmol i.t.) dose-dependently inhibited both the acute and late phase formalin behaviors; pretreatment with lamotrigine (4-265 nmol i.t.) inhibited only the late phase. In the formalin assay the GABA_A antagonist bicuculline reversed the acute phase antinociception, whereas the GABA_B antagonist saclofen reversed both the acute and late phase tiagabine-induced antinociception. Tiagabine administered i.p. but not i.t. dose-dependently reduced dynorphin-induced chronic allodynia for 120 min. Gabapentin and lamotrigine produced antinociception administered either i.t. or i.p. in a dose-dependent manner. Thus, we have shown that gabapentin and lamotrigine produced antinociception in two mouse models of pain, whereas tiagabine produced antinociception in all three mouse models of pain.