Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Infammopharmacology https://doi.org/10.1007/s10787-018-0454-4 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Orofacial antinociceptive efect of sulphated polysaccharide from the marine algae Hypnea pseudomusciformis in rodents Caio Átila Prata Bezerra Souza 1  · Breytiner Amaro de Oliveira 1  · Sacha Aubrey Alves Rodrigues Santos 1  · Francisco Lucas Alves Batista 2  · Francisco Regivânio Nascimento Andrade 3  · Eugênio Januário Ramos Neto 3  · José de Maria Albuquerque de Melo Júnior 1  · Francisco Rogenio da Silva Mendes 1  · Lana Karine Vasconcelos Barroso 1  · Kirley Marques Canuto 4  · Francisco Ernani Alves Magalhães 1,2  · Angelo Roncalli Alves e Silva 1  · Wladimir Ronald Lobo Farias 3  · Adriana Rolim Campos 1 Received: 18 January 2018 / Accepted: 7 February 2018 © Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 Abstract This study aimed to evaluate the antinociceptive efect of sulphated polysaccharide from the marine algae Hypnea pseudo- musciformis (PLS) using rodent models of orofacial pain. Acute pain was induced by formalin, capsaicin, cinnamaldehyde, acidifed saline or glutamate (cutaneous modes) and hypertonic saline (corneal model). In one experiment, animals were pretreated with ruthenium red, glibenclamide, naloxone, L-NAME, methylene blue or ketamine to investigate the mechanism of antinociception. In another experiment, animals pretreated with PLS or saline were submitted to the temporomandibular joint formalin test. In yet another, animals were submitted to craniofacial pain induced by mustard oil. Motor activity was evaluated with the open-feld test. Cytotoxicity and antioxidant activities were also assessed. Pre-treatment with PLS signif- cantly reduced nociceptive behavior associated with acute pain. Antinociception was efectively reduced, but not inhibited, by ruthenium red and ketamine. L-NAME and glibenclamide enhanced the PLS efect. PLS antinociception was resistant to methylene blue, naloxone and heating. PLS presented no cytotoxicity or antioxidant properties. Our results confrm the potential pharmacological relevance of PLS as an inhibitor of orofacial nociception in acute pain probably mediated by glutamatergic, nitrergic, TRPs and K + ATP pathways. Keywords Hypnea pseudomusciformis · Sulphated polysaccharide · Orofacial antinociception Introduction Each year, a considerable number of drug candidates obtained from marine organisms have been identified. Some marine-derived pharmaceutical substances have been approved by the FDA for clinical use as drugs (Dyshlovoy and Honecker 2018), such as the frst marine drug approved for the treatment of pain, ziconotide (Malve 2016). Other compounds of marine origin being tested for the treatment of pain include tetrodotoxin, XEN-2174 and leconotide (New- man and Cragg 2014). Polysaccharides, biomacromolecules that exist in organ- isms and as cell wall structural components of marine algae (Xu et al. 2017), are increasingly important in the biochemi- cal and medical areas, since these compounds, besides hav- ing several pharmacological properties, are considered of low toxicity (He et al. 2016). Previous studies have shown that sulphated polysaccharides (PLS) extracted from sea- weeds exhibit a potential therapeutic efect for several dis- eases (Carneiro et al. 2018). PLS from algae have potential uses, such as antiviral, antioxidant, antineoplastic, immu- nomodulatory, antiepileptic, and other activities (Ahmed et al. 2014). The antinociceptive activity of PLS obtained Inflammopharmacology * Adriana Rolim Campos adrirolim@unifor.br 1 Experimental Biology Center (NUBEX), University of Fortaleza (UNIFOR), Av. Washington Soares, 1321, Edson Queiroz, Fortaleza, Ceará CEP 60811-905, Brazil 2 Laboratório de Bioprospecção de Produtos Naturais e Biotecnologia, Universidade Estadual do Ceará (UECE), Tauá, Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil 3 Departamento de Engenharia de Pesca, Universidade Federal do Ceará (UFC), Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil 4 Embrapa Agroindústria Tropical, Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil