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Partial to Complete Suppression of Unilateral Noise-Induced Tinnitus in Rats after Cyclobenzaprine Treatment

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Abstract

Some forms of tinnitus are believed to arise from abnormal central nervous system activity following a single or repeated noise exposure, for which there are no widely accepted pharmacological treatments. One central site that could be related to tinnitus awareness or modulation is the locus coeruleus, a brainstem structure associated with stress, arousal, and attention. In the present study, we evaluated the effects of cyclobenzaprine, a drug known to act on the rat locus coeruleus, on noise-induced tinnitus using Gap Prepulse Inhibition of the Acoustic Startle (GPIAS). In untreated rats, brief silent gaps presented prior to a 5–10-kHz bandpass startling stimulus produced robust GPIAS. Treatment with cyclobenzaprine alone had no effect on the ability of gaps to suppress the startle response. When animals were exposed to intense narrow-band (126 dB SPL, 16 kHz, 100 Hz BW) unilateral noise, GPIAS was significantly reduced, suggesting the presence of tinnitus. Following the noise exposure, a subset of rats that maintained a robust startle response continued to show GPIAS impairment at 6–20 kHz, 40 days post-noise, suggesting chronic tinnitus. When this subset of animals was treated with cyclobenzaprine, at a dose that had no significant effects on the startle response (0.5 mg/kg), GPIAS recovered partially or to near baseline levels at the affected frequencies. These results were consistent with the absence of tinnitus. By 48 h post-treatment, evidence of tinnitus re-emerged. Our results suggest that cyclobenzaprine was effective in transiently suppressing noise-induced tinnitus in rats.

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Conflict of Interest

The authors report no conflict of interest with the research presented in the manuscript.

All work was supported by the Tinnitus Research Initiative (TRI).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, University of Florida, P.O. Box 100174, Gainesville, FL, 32610, USA

    Edward Lobarinas, Christopher Spankovich & Colleen Le Prell

  2. Ear Nose and Throat Center, Stamford, CT, USA

    Caroline Blair

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  1. Edward Lobarinas
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  2. Caroline Blair
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  3. Christopher Spankovich
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  4. Colleen Le Prell
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Correspondence to Edward Lobarinas.

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EL designed the experiments, EL and CB performed data collection and analysis, and all authors contributed to writing the manuscript.

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Lobarinas, E., Blair, C., Spankovich, C. et al. Partial to Complete Suppression of Unilateral Noise-Induced Tinnitus in Rats after Cyclobenzaprine Treatment. JARO 16, 263–272 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10162-014-0500-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10162-014-0500-x

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