Involvement of peripheral TRPV1 channels in the analgesic effects of thalidomide

Thalidomide was introduced to the market in 1957 as a sedative and antiemetic agent, and returned to the market for the treatment of myelodysplastic syndrome and multiple myeloma. There are reports and studies of thalidomide as an analgesic or analgesic adjuvant in clinic. However, the underlying mechanism is quite elusive. Many studies suggest that the analgesic effect of thalidomide may be due to its immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory properties as it suppresses the production of tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) selectively. However, it is not clear whether any other mechanisms are implicated in the pain relief. In this study, we demonstrated that the peripheral vanilloid receptor 1 (TRPV1) channel was also involved in the analgesic effect of thalidomide in different cell and animal models. During the activation by its agonist capsaicin, the cation inward influx through TRPV1 channels and the whole-cell current significantly decreased after TRPV1-overexpressed HEK293 cells or dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons were pre-treated with thalidomide for 20 minutes. And such attenuation in the TRPV1 activity was in a dose-dependent manner of thalidomide. In an acetic acid writhing test, pre-treatment of thalidomide decreased the writhing number in the wild type mice, while it did not happen in TRPV1 knockout mice, suggesting that the TRPV1 channel was involved in the pain relief by thalidomide. Taken together, the study showed that TRPV1 channels were involved in the analgesic effects of thalidomide. Such alteration in the action of TRPV1 channels by thalidomide may help understand how thalidomide takes analgesic effect in the body in addition to its selective inhibition of TNF-α production.