An experimental study of rosuvastatin's analgesic effect and its interaction with etoricoxib, tramadol, amlodipine, and amitriptytline in albino mice.

Background: Statins are the mainstay for the treatment of dyslipidemia. Recently, rosuvastatin has also been demonstrated to possess analgesic properties in animal studies. The present study has been planned to further confirm the analgesic activity of rosuvastatin, etoricoxib, tramadol, amlodipine, and amitriptyline and study the interaction of rosuvastatin with the above-mentioned analgesics. The objective of the study was to confirm the analgesic activity of rosuvastatin and determine the minimum analgesic dose of rosuvastatin, etoricoxib, tramadol, amlodipine and amitriptyline and to study the analgesic effect of combination of subanalgesic doses of rosuvastatin with sub-analgesic doses of etoricoxib, tramadol, amlodipine, and amitriptyline. Method: After IAEC approval, the study was carried out in albino mice in two phases. In phase I, the analgesic effect of rosuvastatin, etoricoxib, tramadol, amlodipine, and amitriptyline was confirmed by using tail-flick and writhing methods. In phase II, analgesic effect of combinations of subanalgesic dose of rosuvastatin with subanalgesic dose of etoricoxib, tramadol, amlodipine, and amitriptyline was studied.
Results: Minimal analgesic dose of rosuvastatin, etoricoxib, tramadol, amlodipine, and amitriptyline was observed as 5, 20, 10, 5, and 10 mg/kg, respectively. In phase II, combination of subanalgesic dose of rosuvastatin 2.5 mg/kg with subanalgesic doses of etoricoxib (10 mg/kg), tramadol (5 mg/kg), amlodipine (2.5 mg/kg), and amitriptyline (5 mg/kg), demonstrated synergistic analgesic activity.
Conclusion: Rosuvastatin exerts dose-dependent analgesic activity that is synergistic to that of etoricoxib, tramadol, amlodipine, and amitriptyline. If established in clinical studies as well, this finding can lead to the reduction of analgesic dosing in patients already on statins.