Acute anti-allodynic action of gabapentin in dorsal horn and primary somatosensory cortex: Correlation of behavioural and physiological data

- Gabapentin (GBP) relieves neuropathic pain in animal models within 30 min.
- Spinal cord slices obtained ex vivo from GBP-treated rats have reduced excitability.
- Synaptic drive to excitatory substantia gelatinosa neurons is decreased.
- GBP actions in vivo are mediated intracellularly.
- GBP affects the neurotransmitter release machinery in vivo.

Neuropathic pain is a debilitating consequence of neuronal injury or disease. Although first line treatments include the alpha-2-delta (α2δ)-ligands, pregabalin and gabapentin (GBP), the mechanism of their anti-allodynic action is poorly understood. One specific paradox is that GBP relieves signs of neuropathic pain in animal models within 30min of an intraperitoneal (IP) injection yet its actions in vitro on spinal dorsal horn or primary afferent neurons take hours to develop. We found, using confocal Ca2+ imaging, that substantia gelatinosa neurons obtained ex vivo from rats subjected to sciatic chronic constriction injury (CCI) were more excitable than controls. We confirmed that GBP (100 mg/kg) attenuated mechanical allodynia in animals subject to CCI within 30min of IP injection.Substantia gelatinosa neurons obtained ex vivo from these animals no longer displayed CCI-induced increased excitability.Electrophysiological analysis of substantia gelatinosa neurons ex vivo suggest that rapidly developing in vivo anti-allodynic effects of GBP i) are mediated intracellularly, ii) involve actions on the neurotransmitter release machinery and iii) depend on decreased excitatory synaptic drive to excitatory neurons without major actions on inhibitory neurons or on intrinsic neuronal excitability. Experiments using in vivo Ca2+ imaging showed that 100 mg/kg GBP also suppressed the response of the S1 somatosensory cortex of CCI rats, but not that of control rats, to vibrotactile stimulation.Since the level of α2δ1 protein is increased in primary afferent fibres after sciatic CCI, we suggest this dictates the rate of GBP action; rapidly developing actions can only be seen when α2δ1 levels are elevated.