ArticleMolecular pain2015
N-acetyl-cysteine, a drug that enhances the endogenous activation of group-II metabotropic glutamate receptors, inhibits nociceptive transmission in humans.
Article in Molecular pain, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 39 citations in OpenAlex.
- The impact of intraoperative N-acetylcysteine on opioid consumption following spine surgery: a randomized pilot trial.Pain management · 2023Trial
- Neuropsychiatric Manifestations of COVID-19 Disease and Post COVID Syndrome: The Role of N-acetylcysteine and Acetyl-L-carnitine.Current neuropharmacology · 2025Review
- The Mechanism and Inflammatory Markers Involved in the Potential Use of N-acetylcysteine in Chronic Pain Management.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Trajectory of Change in the Severity of Symptoms in Patients with Fibromyalgia over 24 Months: Exploratory Analyses of a Combination Pharmacological Intervention.Journal of personalized medicine · 2024Article
- Perioperative N-acetylcysteine: evidence and indications.Pain management · 2024Review
- A Nutritional Supplement as Adjuvant of Gabapentinoids for Adults with Neuropathic Pain following Spinal Cord Injury and Stroke: Preliminary Results.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Review
- N-acetylcysteine dose-dependently improves the analgesic effect of acetaminophen on the rat hot plate test.BMC pharmacology & toxicology · 2021Article
- The Multifaceted Therapeutic Role of N-Acetylcysteine (NAC) in Disorders Characterized by Oxidative Stress.Current neuropharmacology · 2021Review
- Ameliorative Effects Of N-Acetylcysteine As Adjunct Therapy On Symptoms Of Painful Diabetic Neuropathy.Journal of pain research · 2019Article
- Acetyl-L-carnitine in painful peripheral neuropathy: a systematic review.Journal of pain research · 2019Article
- Group II Metabotropic Glutamate Receptors: Role in Pain Mechanisms and Pain Modulation.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2018Review
- Emerging Trends in Pain Modulation by Metabotropic Glutamate Receptors.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2018Review
- Effects of N-acetylcysteine on spinal cord oxidative stress biomarkers in rats with neuropathic pain.Brazilian journal of medical and biological research = Revista brasileira de pesquisas medicas e biologica · 2017Article
- Broad spectrum efficacy with LY2969822, an oral prodrug of metabotropic glutamate 2/3 receptor agonist LY2934747, in rodent pain models.British journal of pharmacology · 2017Article
- Analgesia induced by the epigenetic drug, L-acetylcarnitine, outlasts the end of treatment in mouse models of chronic inflammatory and neuropathic pain.Molecular pain · 2017Article
- Transmission pathways and mediators as the basis for clinical pharmacology of pain.Expert review of clinical pharmacology · 2016Article
- Article
- Investigation of the therapeutic potential of N-acetyl cysteine and the tools used to define nigrostriatal degeneration in vivo.Toxicology and applied pharmacology · 2016Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundEmerging research seeking novel analgesic drugs focuses on agents targeting group-II metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGlu2 and mGlu3 receptors). N-Acetylcysteine (NAC) enhances the endogenous activation of mGlu2/3 receptors by activating the glial glutamate:cystine membrane exchanger. Here, we examined whether NAC inhibits nociceptive responses in humans and animals. We tested the effect of oral NAC (1.2 g) on thermal-pain thresholds and laser-evoked potentials in 10 healthy volunteers, according to a crossover, double-blind, placebo-controlled design, and the effect of NAC (100 mg/kg, i.p.) on the tail-flick response evoked by radiant heat stimulation in mice.
resultsIn healthy subjects, NAC treatment left thermal-pain thresholds unchanged, but significantly reduced pain ratings to laser stimuli and amplitudes of laser-evoked potentials. NAC induced significantly greater changes in these measures than placebo. In the tail-flick test, NAC strongly reduced the nocifensive reflex response to radiant heat. The action of NAC was abolished by the preferential mGlu2/3 receptor antagonist, LY341495 (1 mg/kg, i.p.).
conclusionsOur findings show for the first time that NAC inhibits nociceptive transmission in humans, and does the same in mice by activating mGlu2/3 receptors. These data lay the groundwork for investigating the therapeutic potential of NAC in patients with chronic pain.
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