Assessing dose and sex dependent antinociceptive effects of cannabidiol and amitriptyline, alone and in combination, and exploring mechanism of action involving serotonin 1A receptors

Inflammatory pain is caused by tissue hypersensitization and is a component of rheumatic diseases, frequently causing chronic pain. Current guidelines utilize a multimodal approach to pain and sociocultural changes have renewed interest in cannabinoid use, particularly cannabidiol (CBD), for pain. The tricyclic antidepressant amitriptyline (AT) is approved for use in pain-related syndromes, alone and within a multimodal approach. Therefore, we investigated sex- and dosedependent effects of CBD and AT antinociception in the 2.5% formalin inflammatory pain model. Male and female C57BL/6J mice were pretreated with either vehicle, CBD (0.3-100 mg/kg), or AT (0.1-30 mg/kg) prior to formalin testing. In the acute phase, CBD induced antinociception after administration of 30-100 mg/kg in males and 100 mg/kg in females and in the inflammatory phase at doses of 2.5-100 mg/kg in males and 10-100 mg/kg in females. In the acute phase, AT induced antinociception at 10 mg/kg for all mice, and at 0.3 mg/kg in males and 3 mg/kg in female mice in the inflammatory phase. Combining the calculated median effective doses of CBD and AT produced additive effects for all mice in the acute phase and for males only in the inflammatory phase. Use of selective 5-HT1A antagonist WAY-100635 (0.1 mg/kg) before co-administration of CBD and AT reversed antinociception in the acute and partially reversed antinociception in the inflammatory phase. Administration of AT was found to enhance CB1 mRNA expression only in female mice. These results suggest a role for serotonin and sex in mediating cannabidiol and amitriptyline-induced antinociception in inflammatory pain.

Significance Statement Inflammatory pain is an important component of both acute and chronic pain. We have found that CBD and AT show dose-dependent, and that AT additionally shows sex-dependent, antinociceptive effects in an inflammatory pain model. Additionally, the combination of CBD and AT was found to have enhanced antinociceptive effects that is partially reliant of 5-HT1A receptors and supports the use of CBD within a multimodal approach to pain.