{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,26]],"date-time":"2026-07-26T19:04:04Z","timestamp":1785092644381,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":34,"publisher":"Springer Science and Business Media LLC","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,22]],"date-time":"2024-05-22T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1716336000000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,22]],"date-time":"2024-05-22T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1716336000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["link.springer.com"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["BMC Pharmacol Toxicol"],"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>Pruritus, or itching, is a distressing symptom associated with various dermatological and systemic diseases. L-carnitine (\u03b2eta hydroxy-\u03b3-tri methyl amino-butyric acid), is a naturally occurring substance, it controls numerous physiological processes. The present research aims to identify L-carnitine for its anti-pruritic effect via nitric oxide-dependent mechanism.<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>Chloroquine-induced pruritus serves as an experimental model to investigate possible therapeutic interventions. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of L-carnitine in combating oxidative stress, nitric oxide, and inflammatory cytokines in a chloroquine-induced pruritus model.<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>L-carnitine treatment significantly reduced scratching behavior compared to the disease group (<jats:sup>***<\/jats:sup><jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic>\u2009&lt;\u20090.001 vs. chloroquine group), indicating its antipruritic potential. The markers of oxidative stress, GST, GSH, Catalase, and LPO were dysregulated in the disease model, but administration of L-carnitine restored GST, GSH, and Catalase levels and decreased LPO levels (<jats:sup>***<\/jats:sup><jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic>\u2009&lt;\u20090.001 vs. chloroquine group), thereby alleviating oxidative stress. L-carnitine also reduced nitric oxide synthase (NOS) activity, suggesting that it modulates nitric oxide signaling pathways involved in pruritus. In addition, L-carnitine lowered levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-\u03b1), inflammatory marker nuclear factor kappa B (p-NF\u03baB) and also reduces an inflammatory enzyme, cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), determined by ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay) (<jats:sup>***<\/jats:sup><jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic>\u2009&lt;\u20090.001 vs. chloroquine group). It downregulates nNOS mRNA expression confirmed by real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>These findings highlight the therapeutic effects of L-carnitine in alleviating chloroquine-induced pruritus.<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1186\/s40360-024-00748-4","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,22]],"date-time":"2024-05-22T06:02:20Z","timestamp":1716357740000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":5,"title":["Anti-pruritic effect of L-carnitine against chloroquine-induced pruritus mediated via nitric oxide pathway"],"prefix":"10.1186","volume":"25","author":[{"given":"Kiran","family":"Seemab","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Arif-ullah","family":"Khan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Muhammad Imran","family":"Khan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Neelum Gul","family":"Qazi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Amber Mahmood","family":"Minhas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Fawad","family":"Ali","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,22]]},"reference":[{"issue":"1","key":"748_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"19","DOI":"10.1038\/s41577-018-0084-5","volume":"19","author":"K Kabashima","year":"2019","unstructured":"Kabashima K, Honda T, Ginhoux F, Egawa GJNRI.The immunological anatomy of the skin. 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The experiments were carried out according to ARRIVE guidelines and the US National Institutes of Health, by the approval of the Research and Ethics Committee of Riphah Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Riphah International University (Reference no: REC\/RIPS\/2022\/06). All animals were anesthetized using a cocktail of xylazine (9 mg\/kg) and ketamine (90 mg\/kg) intraperitoneally and were euthanized by cervical dislocation following AVMA guidelines. All efforts were made to minimize their suffering.","order":2,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Ethical approval"}},{"value":"Not applicable.","order":3,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Consent to participate"}},{"value":"Not applicable.","order":4,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Consent for publication"}},{"value":"The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.","order":5,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Competing interests"}}],"article-number":"32"}}