Unveiling the anxiolytic and analgesic effects of citronellal in Swiss mice: in vivo and in silico insights into COX and GABAA receptor pathways

This study aims to evaluate the analgesic and anxiolytic effects of citronellal (CTL) in Swiss mice using two new sensitive and economic mouse models along with possible molecular mechanisms through in silico studies. For this, we employed marble displacement and spiked-field apparatus to check the anxiolytic and analgesic effects, respectively. In silico studies were done against cyclooxygenase (COX) enzymes and GABA_A receptor subunits. Findings suggest that the test sample CTL significantly reduced the number of marbles displaces (NMD), square crosses (NSC), paw massages (NPM), and escaping attempts (NEA) in animals than the control group. CTL exhibited better effects in the perforated-field study compared to the reference drug diclofenac sodium. In both cases, CTL (200 mg/kg) significantly reduced the test parameters when combined with the standard drugs (diazepam or diclofenac sodium). In in silico studies, CTL showed binding affinities of − 5.5, − 5.2, − 4.8, and − 4.8 kcal/mol with the COX1, COX2, and GABA_A receptors (α2 and α3 subunits), respectively. Taken together, CTL may exert anxiolytic- analgesic-like effects on mice, possibly through the GABA_A receptor and COXs interaction pathways. These new tools might be used to check the anxiolytic and analgesic properties of a wide variety of test substances.