Visceral pain is one of the leading causes for
abdominal pain in gastroenterological diseases and is still hard to treat effectively.
Bulleyaconitine A (BAA) is an
aconitine analog and has been used for the treatment of
pain. Our previous work suggested that BAA exerted
analgesic effects on
neuropathic pain through stimulating the expression of
dynorphin A in spinal microglia. Here, we investigated the inhibitory effect of BAA on
visceral pain and examined whether the expression of
dynorphin A in spinal microglia was responsible for its effects. We found that BAA produced significant antivisceral
pain effect induced by
acetic acid through stimulating
dynorphin A expression in spinal microglia. In addition, anxiety and chronic
visceral pain are highly prevalent comorbid conditions in clinical research, which is still a problem to be solved. We also aimed to evaluate the effects of BAA on anxiety. A comorbidity model with characteristics of both chronic
visceral pain and anxiety was developed by colorectal injection of
2,4,6-trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid and the induction of heterotypic intermittent chronic stress protocol. In comorbid animals, BAA exerted great
antianxiety effects. Meanwhile, the antianxiety mechanism of BAA was different with the antivisceral
pain mechanism of BAA. In conclusion, our study demonstrated, for the first time, that BAA exerted marked antivisceral
pain and
antianxiety effects, which expands the
analgesic spectrum and clinical application of BAA. Furthermore, it also it provides a better guidance for the clinical use of BAA.