Benfotiamine relieves inflammatory and neuropathic pain in rats

Benfotiamine has shown therapeutic efficacy in the treatment of painful diabetic neuropathy in human beings. However, so far there is no evidence about the efficacy of this drug in preclinical models of pain. The purpose of this study was to assess the possible antinociceptive and antiallodynic effect of benfotiamine in inflammatory and neuropathic pain models in the rat. Inflammatory pain was induced by injection of formalin in non-diabetic and diabetic (2 weeks) rats. Reduction of flinching behavior was considered as antinociception. Neuropathic pain was induced by either ligation of left L5/L6 spinal nerves or administration of streptozotocin (50 mg/kg, i.p.) in Wistar rats. Benfotiamine significantly reduced inflammatory (10-300 mg/kg) and neuropathic (75-300 mg/kg) nociception in non-diabetic and diabetic rats. Results indicate that oral administration of benfotiamine is able to reduce tactile allodynia from different origin in the rat and they suggest the use of this drug to reduce inflammatory and neuropathic pain in humans.