Ketamine, one of a few clinically-available
N-Methyl-D-aspartate (
NMDA)-receptor antagonists, is known to improve the
analgesic efficacy of
opioids in humans and rodents. However, the use of
ketamine in combination with
opioids is mainly restricted to the perioperative setting, due to severe psychotomimetic,
sedative and motor side effects. Recent data from our laboratory demonstrated that a major metabolite of
ketamine,
norketamine, in particular the S(+) enantiomer, had a better antinociception/side effects profile than
ketamine in rats. It is unknown if
norketamine affects
opioid antinociception. In the present study,
morphine (a low dose) was combined with S(+)- and R(-)-
norketamine (sub-antinociceptive doses) and characterized utilizing rodent models of
pain including: thermal nociception (the tail-flick test),
peripheral neuropathy (chronic constriction nerve injury) and tonic inflammatory
pain (the
formalin test). The data showed that: 1)
Norketamine enhanced
morphine antinociception and blocked tolerance to this effect; 2)
Norketamine potentiated
morphine effectiveness in the alleviation of symptoms resulting from injury to nerve (
mechanical hyperalgesia,
tactile allodynia) and peripheral tissue (
formalin-induced nociceptive behavior); 3) S(+)-
norketamine was more potent than R(-)-
norketamine; 4) Antinociception was not confounded by significant side effects.
Morphine-S(+)-
norketamine combination drug therapy may prove clinically useful for the alleviation of acute and
chronic pain of differing etiology.