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Conditional pharmacology: Expression of anti-inflammatory activity may require pre-existent inflammatory mediators and/or hormones

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Abstract

Aspirin, aminopyrine, azapropazone, bufexamac (100 mg/kg), and even high doses of copper acetate (50 mg/kg p.o.) showed no acute anti-inflammatory activity in the standard assay based on the carrageenan-induced rat paw oedema in healthy, normal rats. Repeating the assays in animals with pre-established inflammation revealed that these drugs are effective anti-oedemic agents. The acceptability of these agents in clinical practice may therefore rest on the fact that certain inflammatory mediators can support and/or induce the expression of an anti-inflammatory activity of agents, that are ineffective in animals not affected by additional inflammations. If misoprostol (a prostaglandin-E1 analogue) is given p.o. together with the above test-drugs to healthy rats, the anti-oedemic properties of these drugs are revealed, suggesting that prostanoids may potentiate some of the NSAIDs which do not inhibit prostanoid synthesisper se.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathology, University of Adelaide, 5001, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

    M. W. Whitehouse & B. Vernon-Roberts

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  1. M. W. Whitehouse
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  2. B. Vernon-Roberts
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Whitehouse, M.W., Vernon-Roberts, B. Conditional pharmacology: Expression of anti-inflammatory activity may require pre-existent inflammatory mediators and/or hormones. Inflammopharmacology 1, 61–68 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02735462

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