The non-benzodiazepine anxiolytic etifoxine limits mechanical allodynia and anxiety-like symptoms in a mouse model of streptozotocin-induced diabetic neuropathy.

More than 450 million people worldwide suffer from diabetes, or 1 in 11 people. Chronic hyperglycemia degrades patients' quality of life and the development of neuropathic pain contributes to the burden of this disease. In this study, we used the mouse model of streptozocin-induced diabetic type 1 neuropathy to assess the analgesic potential of etifoxine.

Long-lasting analgesic and neuroprotective action of the non-benzodiazepine anxiolytic etifoxine in a mouse model of neuropathic pain.

Neuropathic pain is frequently associated with anxiety and major depressive disorders, which considerably impact the overall patient experience. Favoring GABAergic inhibition through the pain matrix has emerged as a promising strategy to restore proper processing of nociceptive and affective information in neuropathic pain states. In this context, the non-benzodiazepine anxiolytic etifoxine (EFX), known to amplify GABAergic inhibition through positive modulation of GABA receptors and neurosteroidogenesis, presents several advantages.

Anxiolytics targeting GABA receptors: Insights on etifoxine.

Objectives: Anxiety and adjustment disorders are among the most prevalent mental health conditions. This review focuses on γ-aminobutyric acid receptor type A (GABAR)-mediated anxiolysis, describing the action of both endogenous and exogenous modulators of GABAR. Future directions and innovative strategies to alleviate anxiety symptoms are discussed, with a particular emphasis on etifoxine.

Neonatal Pain, Still Searching for the Optimal Approach.

Background: although neonatal pain management has seen huge improvements in the past years, many gaps between knowledge and practice still exist.

Objective: to give the reader the state of the art of actual pain management and treatment.

Methods: a literature review was done on the physiopathology of pain, sex differences in the perception of pain, epidemiology, non-pharmacological treatment and developmental care approach, pharmacological treatment with pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics approaches.

Insights into the mechanisms and the emergence of sex-differences in pain.

Recent studies describe sex and gender as critical factors conditioning the experience of pain and the strategies to respond to it. It is now clear that men and women have different physiological and behavioral responses to pain. Some pathological pain states are also highly sex-specific.

Photoperiod can entrain circannual rhythms in pinealectomized European hamsters.

In mammals, the pineal hormone melatonin is thought to be essential to process environmental photoperiodic information. In this study, we demonstrate in a circannual species, the European hamster Cricetus cricetus, the existence of a melatonin-independent second pathway. In 4 physiological parameters (reproduction, body weight, activity pattern, body temperature), a large majority of pinealectomized European hamsters were entrained to an accelerated photoperiodic regime.