N-type calcium channel blockers: a new approach towards the treatment of chronic neuropathic pain

• Main Authors: Shikha Choudhary (Author), Raminderjit Kaur (Author), Aafrin Waziri (Author), Arun Garg (Author), Renu Kadian (Author), Md Sabir Alam (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: Open Exploration Publishing Inc., 2023-02-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.
• Notes: 10.37349/emed.2023.00126; 2692-3106
• Keywords: n-type calcium channel blockers; neuropathic pain; conotoxin; ω-conotoxin; ziconotide; peptide inhibitor; Other systems of medicine; RZ201-999
• Source: Exploration of Medicine, Vol 4, Iss 1, Pp 85-106 (2023)

Neuropathic pain (NP) remains maltreated for a wide number of patients by the currently available treatments and little research has been done in finding new drugs for treating NP. Ziconotide (PrialtTM) had been developed as the new drug, which belongs to the class of ω-conotoxin MVIIA. It inhibits N-type calcium channels. Ziconotide is under the last phase of the clinical trial, a new non-narcotic drug for the management of NP. Synthetically it has shown the similarities with ω-conotoxin MVIIA, a constituent of poison found in fish hunting snails (Conus magus). Ziconotide acts by selectively blocking neural N-type voltage-sensitized Ca2+ channels (NVSCCs). Certain herbal drugs also have been studied but no clinical result is there and the study is only limited to preclinical data. This review emphasizes the N-type calcium channel inhibitors, and their mechanisms for blocking calcium channels with their remedial prospects for treating chronic NP.