Antinociceptive potency of aminoglycoside antibiotics and magnesium chloride: a comparative study on models of phasic and incisional pain in rats.

A close relationship exists between calcium concentration in the central nervous system and nociceptive processing. Aminoglycoside antibiotics and magnesium interact with N- and P/Q-type voltage-operated calcium channels. In the present study we compare the antinociceptive potency of intrathecal administration of aminoglycoside antibiotics and magnesium chloride in the tail-flick test and on incisional pain in rats, taken as models of phasic and persistent post-surgical pain, respectively. The order of potency in the tail-flick test was gentamicin (ED50 = 3.34 microg; confidence limits 2.65 and 4.2) > streptomycin (5.68 microg; 3.76 and 8.57) = neomycin (9.22 microg; 6.98 and 12.17) > magnesium (19.49 microg; 11.46 and 33.13). The order of potency to reduce incisional pain was gentamicin (ED50 = 2.06 microg; confidence limits 1.46 and 2.9) > streptomycin (47.86 microg; 26.3 and 87.1) = neomycin (83.17 microg; 51.6 and 133.9). The dose-response curves for each test did not deviate significantly from parallelism. We conclude that neomycin and streptomycin are more potent against phasic pain than against persistent pain, whereas gentamicin is equipotent against both types of pain. Magnesium was less potent than the antibiotics and effective in the tail-flick test only.