ABSTRACT
Various animal models, especially rodents, are used to study pain, due to the difficulty of studying it inhumans. Many drugs that produce analgesia have been studied and there is evidence among whichNSAIDs deserve to be highlighted. Dexketoprofen (DEX) provides a broad antinociceptive profile indifferent types of pain; therefore, this study was designed to evaluate the profile of antinociceptivepotency in mice. Analgesic activity was evaluated using the acetic acid abdominal constriction test(writhing test), a chemical model of visceral pain. Dose-response curves for i.p. DEX administration (1,3, 10, 30 and 100 mg/kg), using at least six mice in each of at least five doses, was obtained before and30 min after pre-treatment with different pharmacological agents. Pretreatment of the mice with opioidreceptor antagonists was not effective; however, the serotonin receptor antagonist and nitric oxidesynthase inhibitor produce a significant increase in DEX-induced antinociception. The data from thepresent study shows that DEX produces antinociception in the chemical twisting test of mice, which isexplained with difficulty by the simple inhibition of COX. This effect appears to be mediated by othermechanisms in which the contribution of the NO and 5-HT pathways has an important effect on DEXinduced antinociception.