Gelsemine is an effective agent for treatment of both neuropathic pain and sleep disturbance in partial sciatic nerve ligation (PSNL) mice. Gelsemine (4 mg/kg) exerts analgesic effects on PSNL-induced mechanical allodynia and thermal hyperalgesia. In PSNL mice, Gelsemine (2 and 4 mg/kg) increases the mechanical threshold for 4 h and prolonged the thermal latencies for 3 h. Furthermore, Gelsemine (4 mg/kg, administered at 6:30 AM) increases non-rapid eye movement (non-REM, NREM) sleep, decreases wakefulness, but does not affect rapid eye movement (REM) sleep during the first 3 h in PSNL mice.
Immunohistochemical study shows that PSNL increases c-Fos expression in the neurons of the anterior cingulate cortex, and Gelsemine (4 mg/kg) decreases c-Fos expression by 58%.