To find new antipruritic herbal medicines for pruritus, we screened the methanol extracts of seven herbal medicines which have been used to treat dermatologic diseases, testing them on mouse models of acute and chronic itch. When administrated perorally (p.o.) at a dose of 200 mg/kg, methanol extracts of Sophora flavescens and Cnidium monnieri, but not the others, significantly inhibited a sero...

Interleukin (IL)-31 is a key cytokine that contributes to pruritus in atopic dermatitis (AD). Recently, the treatment with anti-IL-31 receptor alpha (RA) antibody exhibited remarkable antipruritic effect AD patients. In clinical trial, serum levels of thymus activation-regulated chemokine (TARC), biomarker AD, were unexpectedly increased some patients treated anti-IL-31RA antibodies, without an...

BACKGROUND Acupuncture and moxibustion are used to treat pruritus and atopic dermatitis. However, whether cold stimulation (defined as that the temperature conducted under skin temperature) of acupoints affects itching in experimental murine models remains unclear. METHODS The present study was designed to determine the therapeutic effects of different thermal stimulations at the Quchi acupoi...

Abstract In recent decades, the therapeutic potential of cannabinoids and analogous compounds has been intensively investigated. The endocannabinoid system already identified in skin and, although much remains to be discovered about its contribution importance for maintenance homeostasis, it increasingly associated as promising dermatological disorders’ management. Cannabidiol (CBD), main non-i...

Introduction: For centuries, cannabinoids are known to be effective in pain relief. Itch is an unpleasant sensation that provokes a desire to scratch. Since itch and pain are two sensations sharing a lot in common, we aimed to investigate whether the cannabinoid agonist WIN 55,212-2 reduces serotonin-induced scratching behavior and also observe whether modulation of nitric oxide (NO) production...

objective: vanillosmopsis arborea baker (asteraceae) has high economic value from chapada to araripe and its bark essential oil is a potential source of alpha-bisabolol. the present study aimed to elucidate the antinociceptive and antipruritic properties of the essential oil of v. arborea baker (eova) in mice. materials and methods: the antinociceptive activity was assessed using the capsaicin,...

Chronic pruritus is difficult to treat and requires the evaluation of new therapeutic modalities. We initiated an open-labelled, two-arm prospective, proof-of-concept study applying two selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors on a long-term basis. Paroxetine and fluvoxamine were tested in a total of 72 pruritic patients (27 men, 45 women, age range 28-88 years, mean age 59.2 years). The reduct...

A frequent empirical observation is that cold-induced counter-irritation may attenuate itch. The aim of this randomized, single-blinded, exploratory study was to evaluate the counter-irritation effects of cold-stimulation and topical application of transient receptor potential TRPA1/M8-agonists (trans-cinnamaldehyde/L-menthol, respectively), on histamine-induced itch, wheals and neurogenic infl...

Sapindus emarginatus is important indigenous plant with lots of traditional importance belongs to family sapindaceae. It is commonly called as Soap nut tree which is found in most of the hilly regions of India. Each and every part of the plant is used traditionally in various ailments. Trees of genus Sapindus are cultivated in many parts of India. The secondary metabolites present in Sapindus e...

Osthole, an active coumarin isolated from Cnidium monnieri (L.) Cusson, has long been used in China as an antipruritic herbal medicine; however, the antipruitic mechanism of osthole is unknown. We studied the molecular mechanism of osthole in histamine-dependent itch by behavioral test, Ca(2+) imaging, and electrophysiological experiments. First, osthole clearly remitted the scratching behavior...