PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Anthony S. Basile
AU  - Aaron Janowsky
AU  - Krystyna Golembiowska
AU  - Magdalena Kowalska
AU  - Eyal Tam
AU  - Morris Benveniste
AU  - Piotr Popik
AU  - Agnieszka Nikiforuk
AU  - Martyna Krawczyk
AU  - Gabriel Nowak
AU  - Philip A. Krieter
AU  - Arnold S. Lippa
AU  - Phil Skolnick
AU  - Elena Koustova
TI  - Characterization of the Antinociceptive Actions of Bicifadine in Models of Acute, Persistent, and Chronic Pain
AID  - 10.1124/jpet.106.116483
DP  - 2007 Jun 01
TA  - Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
PG  - 1208--1225
VI  - 321
IP  - 3
4099  - http://jpet.aspetjournals.org/content/321/3/1208.short
4100  - http://jpet.aspetjournals.org/content/321/3/1208.full
SO  - J Pharmacol Exp Ther2007 Jun 01; 321
AB  - Bicifadine (1-p-tolyl-3-azabicyclo[3.1.0]hexane) inhibits monoamine neurotransmitter uptake by recombinant human transporters in vitro with a relative potency of norepinephrine > serotonin > dopamine (≈1:2:17). This in vitro profile is supported by microdialysis studies in freely moving rats, where bicifadine (20 mg/kg i.p.) increased extrasynaptic norepinephrine and serotonin levels in the prefrontal cortex, norepinephrine levels in the locus coeruleus, and dopamine levels in the striatum. Orally administered bicifadine is an effective antinociceptive in several models of acute, persistent, and chronic pain. Bicifadine potently suppressed pain responses in both the Randall-Selitto and kaolin models of acute inflammatory pain and in the phenyl-p-quinone-induced and colonic distension models of persistent visceral pain. Unlike many transport inhibitors, bicifadine was potent and completely efficacious in both phases of the formalin test in both rats and mice. Bicifadine also normalized the nociceptive threshold in the complete Freund's adjuvant model of persistent inflammatory pain and suppressed mechanical and thermal hyperalgesia and mechanical allodynia in the spinal nerve ligation model of chronic neuropathic pain. Mechanical hyperalgesia was also reduced by bicifadine in the streptozotocin model of neuropathic pain. Administration of the D2 receptor antagonist (-)-sulpiride reduced the effects of bicifadine in the mechanical hyperalgesia assessment in rats with spinal nerve ligations. These results indicate that bicifadine is a functional triple reuptake inhibitor with antinociceptive and antiallodynic activity in acute, persistent, and chronic pain models, with activation of dopaminergic pathways contributing to its antihyperalgesic actions. The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics