scholarly journals The reducing effect of agomelatine on pentylenetetrazol-induced convulsions

2019 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 336-340
Author(s):  
Esra Aciman Demirel ◽  
Mumin Alper Erdoğan ◽  
Bilge Piri Cinar ◽  
Oytun Erbas

Introduction Agomelatine is a potent MT1 and MT2 melatonin receptor agonist and a 5-HT2C serotonin receptor antagonist. The purpose of this study was to show the convulsion-reducing effect of agomelatine, in both clinical and electrophysiological terms, in a pentylenetetrazole (PTZ)-induced experimental epilepsy model in rats. Methods The anticonvulsant activity of agomelatine (25 and 50 mg/kg) was evaluated in rat models of PTZ (35 and 70 mg/kg) and compared with the control groups. Results Agomelatine administration at doses of 25 and 50 mg/kg resulted in a statistically significant decrease in convulsion scores and time to onset of myoclonic jerks compared to the control groups. In addition, comparison of the two doses employed showed that high-dose agomelatine (50 mg/kg) was significantly more effective than the lower dose. In addition to previous studies, we investigated the anticonvulsant effect of agomelatine using electroencephalogram (EEG). Administration of agomelatine at doses of 25 and 50 mg/kg in PTZ-induced seizures caused a significant decrease in the percentage of peak at EEG. Discussion Our results suggest that agomelatine has anticonvulsant activity shown in PTZ-induced seizure model. The results also give some evidences that agomelatine can use on epileptic seizures, but more studies are needed.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shimpei Baba ◽  
Tohru Okanishi ◽  
Koichi Ohsugi ◽  
Rika Suzumura ◽  
Keiko Niimi ◽  
...  

AbstractWe describe the efficacy of high-dose barbiturates and early administration of a parenteral ketogenic diet (KD) as initial treatments for acute status epilepticus (SE) in an 8-year-old girl with febrile infection-related epilepsy syndrome (FIRES). The patient was admitted to our hospital with refractory focal SE. Abundant epileptic discharges over the left frontal region were observed on electroencephalogram (EEG). Treatment with continuous infusion of thiamylal for 4 hours, increased incrementally to 40 mg/kg/h, successfully ended the clinical SE, and induced a burst-suppression coma. The infusion rate was then gradually decreased to 4 mg/kg/h over the next 12 hours. Parenteral KD was administered from days 6 to 21 of illness. Continuous infusion of thiamylal was switched to midazolam on day 10 without causing seizures or EEG exacerbations. The patient has remained seizure free in the 15 months since hospital discharge. The effectiveness of KD for the treatment of FIRES has attracted attention amongst clinicians, but KD treatment may need to last for 2 to 4 days before it can stop SE, a time period that could cause irreversible brain damage. Considering the severity of SE in our patient and the dose of barbiturates needed to treat it, we consider this case to have had a good clinical outcome. The results suggest that rapid termination of seizure using high-dose barbiturates in conjunction with early administration of parenteral KD could reduce the development of chronic epilepsy in patients with FIRES.


Viruses ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 1540
Author(s):  
Beatriz Sierra ◽  
Ana Cristina Magalhães ◽  
Daniel Soares ◽  
Bruno Cavadas ◽  
Ana B. Perez ◽  
...  

Transcriptomics, proteomics and pathogen-host interactomics data are being explored for the in silico–informed selection of drugs, prior to their functional evaluation. The effectiveness of this kind of strategy has been put to the test in the current COVID-19 pandemic, and it has been paying off, leading to a few drugs being rapidly repurposed as treatment against SARS-CoV-2 infection. Several neglected tropical diseases, for which treatment remains unavailable, would benefit from informed in silico investigations of drugs, as performed in this work for Dengue fever disease. We analyzed transcriptomic data in the key tissues of liver, spleen and blood profiles and verified that despite transcriptomic differences due to tissue specialization, the common mechanisms of action, “Adrenergic receptor antagonist”, “ATPase inhibitor”, “NF-kB pathway inhibitor” and “Serotonin receptor antagonist”, were identified as druggable (e.g., oxprenolol, digoxin, auranofin and palonosetron, respectively) to oppose the effects of severe Dengue infection in these tissues. These are good candidates for future functional evaluation and clinical trials.


2004 ◽  
Vol 78 ◽  
pp. 599-600
Author(s):  
T Akiyoshi ◽  
Q Zhang ◽  
F Inoue ◽  
K Tanaka ◽  
O Aramaki ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
pp. 61-64
Author(s):  
Shahla Yagub Melikova ◽  

Epilepsy is one of the most common serious neurological diseases. Many publications relating to interaction of epilepsy and pregnancy have been studied. Women with epilepsy experience a number of physical and social problems associated with obstetric risk, the risk of seizures during pregnancy. Generalized epileptic seizures may have a direct damaging effect on the fetus, although there is no conclusive evidence for a significant increase in the incidence of complications during pregnancy in women with epilepsy. Antenatal exposure to antiepileptic drugs, especially in high-dose and polytherapy, increases the risk of congenital malformations. There are concerns regarding the effects of antiepileptic drugs on infants during breastfeeding. However, the risk of complications associated with the epilepsy and the effects of antiepileptic drugs on the fetus may be reduced by joint monitor by neurologist-epileptologist and obstetrician. Key words: pregnancy, antiepileptic drugs, epilepsy, monotherapy, polytherapy.


2017 ◽  
Vol 92 (6) ◽  
pp. 662-667 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.S.S. Sandri ◽  
R. Rodriguez ◽  
M.M. Costa ◽  
S.M. Porto ◽  
D. Schwingel ◽  
...  

AbstractAbdominal angiostrongyliasis (AA) is caused by Angiostrongylus costaricensis, which inhabits mesenteric arteries. There is no drug treatment for AA, and since intestinal infarction due to thrombi is one of the main complications of the disease, the use of anticoagulants may be a treatment option. Thus, we aimed to assess the effect of high doses of enoxaparin on the prevention of ischaemic intestinal lesions and on the survival of mice infected with A. costaricensis. Twenty-four mice were infected with L3 of A. costaricensis and divided equally into two groups: Group 1, control treated with placebo, and Group 2, treated daily with enoxaparin (2.5 mg/kg) for 50 days. All mice were subjected to necropsy and histological analysis. The results from gross and microscopic assessments showed no variation in the prevalence of lesions between the groups. An analysis was also performed among survivors and non-survivors, showing that animals that died often presented lesions, such as granulation tissue in the serosa, and intestinal infarction and adhesion. The mortality rate did not vary between the enoxaparin-treated and control groups. Thus, we showed that high doses of enoxaparin have no protective effect against AA, as the survival rates and lesions of mice did not vary between the treated and control groups. Considering that the use of prophylactic doses was also shown to be ineffective in a previous study, we do not recommend the use of enoxaparin for AA treatment.


2012 ◽  
pp. 619-628 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. SZCZUROWSKA ◽  
P. MAREŠ

The activation of metabotropic glutamate receptors subtype 4 (mGluR4) potentiates models of absence seizures in adult rats. These seizures are age-dependent, but data concerning the role of mGluR4 in immature brain is insufficient. N-phenyl-7-(hydroxyimino)cyclopropa[b]chromen-1acarboxamide (PHCCC), which is a positive allosteric modulator of these receptors, was used in three different models of seizures in immature rats: 1) convulsions induced by high doses of pentetrazol (PTZ; a model of generalised tonic-clonic seizures); 2) rhythmic electro-encephalographic (EEG) activity induced by low doses of PTZ (a model of absence seizures); and 3) electrically elicited cortical afterdischarges (ADs, a model of myoclonic seizures). We administered four doses of PHCCC (1, 3, 10 and 20 mg/kg) in PTZ-induced convulsions and two doses (3 and 10 mg/kg) in the two electrophysiological models of freely moving rats with implanted electrodes. Every dose and age group consisted from 8 to 10 rats. PTZ-elicited convulsions were not significantly influenced by PHCCC. In contrast, PHCCC potentiated the effect of a subconvulsant dose (60 mg/kg) of PTZ. The 10-mg/kg dose of PHCCC significantly prolonged the duration of PTZ-induced rhythmic activity episodes and shortened the intervals between individual episodes in 25-day-old rats (P25). In contrast, this potentiation was not seen in P18 rats. Cortical ADs were significantly prolonged with repeated stimulations by both doses of PHCCC in P12 and P18 animals. P25 rats exhibited only slightly longer AD durations. In conclusion, we did not find any anticonvulsant effect of PHCCC. On the contrary, proconvulsant action was demonstrated in all three models in immature rats.


Author(s):  
Alina V. Kupaeva ◽  
Evgenia A. Skornyakova ◽  
Leonid G. Zaslavskii

Acute cerebellitis is a common inflammatory syndrome typically occurring in children and only on very rare occasions in adults. Thus, there was no description of acute cerebellitis, associated with Crohn’s disease, found in Russian sources of literature. We reported a case of acute cerebellitis in 45-year-old woman with a long history of Crohn’s disease treated with Mesalazine as a basic therapy and a resection of ileotransversoanastomosis together with small intestine two months before the onset of neurological symptoms. She first presented with severe headache and left-sided cerebellar dysfunction. The MRI showed signs of pronounced edema of the left hemisphere of the cerebellum, pial Gd-enhancement along the cerebellar folia, difficulty of CSF- flow. The application of lumbar puncture was impeded by the possibility of complications, such as brain herniation. Treatment with high-dose intravenous Methylprednisolone resulted in clinical and radiological improvement. Over the following year, her clinical status remained unchanged, except for one case of epileptic seizures as a result of switching of basic therapy of Crohn’s disease on Adalimumab. In this case, hemicerebellitis most likely has an immune-mediated nature. The temporal relationship with increased activity of Crohn’s disease and a significant positive response to corticosteroid therapy favored this hypothesis. It was known that inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) had many extra-intestinal manifestations including neurological ones. With regard to that, the alterations in gut microbiota could be a possible common base for systemic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, such as Crohn’s disease or autoimmune cerebellitis, described in this study.


Author(s):  
E. N. Ekene ◽  
O. M. Odigie

Through bite from a female Anopheles mosquito, Malaria is transmitted by infection with single-celled parasites of the genus Plasmodium. Studies have shown it to be characterized by periodic bouts of severe chills, accompanied with high fever. It has been suggested that Pennisetum purpureum possess antiplasmodial effects, however, no scientific record(s) yet exist(s) to validate this claim. This study was therefore undertaken to determine the anti-malaria and haematological properties of ethanol leaf extract of P. purpureum in Plasmodium berghei -infected mice. Thirty-Five (35) albino mice (20g) were procured, acclimatized (for two weeks) and assigned to five groups of 7 mice each. With group I receiving standard rat feed ad-libitum (control), Groups II through V were respectively infected with Plasmodium berghei (malaria infected, untreated), Plasmodium berghei infected + treated with 5mg/kg body weight of Artesunate (malaria infected, Artesunate treated), infected with Plasmodium berghei + treated with 200mg/kg body weight of Pennisetum  purpureum (malaria infected, low dose extract treated), and infected with Plasmodium berghei + treated with 400mg/kg body weight of Pennisetum  purpureum (malaria infected, high dose extract treated). After 21 days of administration, mice were sacrificed, blood samples collected, centrifuged for 10 minutes at 300g, and resulting supernatant biochemically analysed for hematologic changes. Result showed a significant increase in initial parasite count across groups except control. Administration of Artesunate also caused a significant (p < .05) reduction in parasite counts upon comparison with control. More so, administration of low and high dose extract caused a significant (p < .05) reduction in parasite count following comparison with control. Administration of 200mg/kg caused the highest parasitemia suppression than high dose. We recommend for further evaluation of the plant in other to identify active ingredients responsible for the observed antimalarial activity.


Electroencephalogram (EEG) is one of the most commonly used tools for epilepsy detection. In this paper we have presented two methods for the diagnosis of epilepsy using machine learning techniques.EEG waveforms have five different kinds of frequency bands. Out of which only two namely theta and gamma bands carry epileptic seizure information. Our model determines the statistical features like mean, variance, maximum, minimum, kurtosis, and skewness from the raw data set. This reduces the mathematical complexities and time consumption of the feature extraction method. It then uses a Logistic regression model and decision tree model to classify whether a person is epileptic or not. After the implementation of the machine learning models, parameters like accuracy, sensitivity, and recall have been found. The results for the same are analyzed in detail in this paper. Epileptic seizures cause severe damage to the brain which affects the health of a person. Our key objective from this paper is to help in the early prediction and detection of epilepsy so that preventive interventions can be provided and precautionary measures are taken to prevent the patient from suffering any severe damage


2002 ◽  
Vol 205 (9) ◽  
pp. 1305-1314 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. S. M. Saifullah ◽  
Kenji Tomioka

SUMMARYThe bilaterally paired optic lobe circadian pacemakers of the cricket Gryllus bimaculatus mutually exchange photic and circadian information to keep their activity synchronized. The information is mediated by a neural pathway, consisting of the so-called medulla bilateral neurons,connecting the medulla areas of the two optic lobes. We investigated the effects of serotonin on the neural activity in this coupling pathway. Spontaneous and light-induced electrical activity of the neurons in the coupling pathway showed daily variations, being more intense during the night than the day. Microinjection of serotonin or a serotonin-receptor agonist,quipazine, into the optic lobe caused a dose- and time-dependent inhibition of spontaneous and light-induced responses, mimicking the day state. The amount of suppression was greater and the recovery from the suppression occurred faster during the night. Application of metergoline, a non-selective serotonin-receptor antagonist, increased spontaneous activity and light-evoked responses during both the day and the night, with higher effect during the day. In addition, metergoline effectively attenuated the effects of serotonin. These facts suggest that in the cricket's optic lobe, serotonin is released during the daytime and sets the day state in the neurons regulating coupling between the bilaterally paired optic lobe circadian pacemakers.


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