Pathological conditions in the central nervous system, including stroke and trauma, are often exacerbated by cerebral edema. We recently identified a nonselective cation channel, the NC Ca-ATP channel, in ischemic astrocytes that is regulated by sulfonylurea receptor 1 (SUR1), is opened by depletion of ATP and, when opened, causes cytotoxic edema. Here, we evaluated involvement of this channel in rodent models of stroke. SUR1 protein and mRNA were newly expressed in ischemic neurons, astrocytes and capillaries. Upregulation of SUR1 was linked to activation of the transcription factor Sp1 and was associated with expression of functional NC Ca-ATP but not K ATP channels. Block of SUR1 with low-dose glibenclamide reduced cerebral edema, infarct volume and mortality by 50%, with the reduction in infarct volume being associated with cortical sparing. Our findings indicate that the NC Ca-ATP channel is crucially involved in development of cerebral edema, and that targeting SUR1 may provide a new therapeutic approach to stroke.Edema complicates many conditions that affect the central nervous system (CNS), including stroke and trauma. Edema worsens neurological function and can threaten life. Swelling resulting from malignant cerebral edema after a large middle cerebral artery (MCA) stroke is responsible for the high mortality of 60−80% of the patients 1 . Molecular mechanisms of cerebral edema are poorly understood, and available treatments are nonspecific and only moderately effective 1 .SUR1 is a regulatory subunit that associates with Kir6.x pore-forming subunits to form heterooctameric K ATP channels 2 . SUR1 confers sensitivity to sulfonylurea inhibitors such as glibenclamide and to channel activators such as diazoxide. Apart from involvement with

Acute spinal cord injury (SCI) causes progressive hemorrhagic necrosis (PHN), a poorly understood pathological process characterized by hemorrhage and necrosis that leads to devastating loss of spinal cord tissue, cystic cavitation of the cord, and debilitating neurological dysfunction. Using a rodent model of severe cervical SCI, we tested the hypothesis that sulfonylurea receptor 1-regulated (SUR1-regulated) Ca 2+ -activated, [ATP] i -sensitive nonspecific cation (NC Ca-ATP ) channels are involved in PHN. In control rats, SCI caused a progressively expansive lesion with fragmentation of capillaries, hemorrhage that doubled in volume over 12 hours, tissue necrosis, and severe neurological dysfunction. SUR1 expression was upregulated in capillaries and neurons surrounding necrotic lesions. Patch clamp of cultured endothelial cells exposed to hypoxia showed that upregulation of SUR1 was associated with expression of functional SUR1-regulated NC Ca-ATP channels. Following SCI, block of SUR1 by glibenclamide or repaglinide or suppression of Abcc8, which encodes for SUR1 by phosphorothioated antisense oligodeoxynucleotide essentially eliminated capillary fragmentation and progressive accumulation of blood, was associated with significant sparing of white matter tracts and a 3-fold reduction in lesion volume, and resulted in marked neurobehavioral functional improvement compared with controls. We conclude that SUR1-regulated NC Ca-ATP channels in capillary endothelium are critical to development of PHN and constitute a major target for therapy in SCI.

✓Cerebral edema is caused by a variety of pathological conditions that affect the brain. It is associated with two separate pathophysiological processes with distinct molecular and physiological antecedents: those related to cytotoxic (cellular) edema of neurons and astrocytes, and those related to transcapillary flux of Na+ and other ions, water, and serum macromolecules. In this review, the authors focus exclusively on the first of these two processes. Cytotoxic edema results from unchecked or uncompensated influx of cations, mainly Na+, through cation channels. The authors review the different cation channels that have been implicated in the formation of cytotoxic edema of astrocytes and neurons in different pathological states. A better understanding of these molecular mechanisms holds the promise of improved treatments of cerebral edema and of the secondary injury produced by this pathological process.

Cerebral ischemia causes increased transcription of sulfonylurea receptor 1 (SUR1), which forms SUR1-regulated NC(Ca-ATP) channels linked to cerebral edema. We tested the hypothesis that hypoxia is an initial signal that stimulates transcription of Abcc8, the gene encoding SUR1, via activation of hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF1). In the brain microvascular endothelial cells, hypoxia increased SUR1 abundance and expression of functional SUR1-regulated NC(Ca-ATP) channels. Luciferase reporter activity driven by the Abcc8 promoter was increased by hypoxia and by coexpression of HIF1α. Surprisingly, a series of luciferase reporter assays studying the Abcc8 promoter revealed that binding sites for specificity protein 1 (Sp1), but not for HIF, were required for stimulation of Abcc8 transcription by HIF1α. Luciferase reporter assays studying Sp1 promoters of three species, and chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis in rats after cerebral ischemia, indicated that HIF binds to HIF-binding sites on the Sp1 promoter to stimulate transcription of the Sp1 gene. We conclude that sequential activation of two transcription factors, HIF and Sp1, is required to stimulate transcription of Abcc8 following cerebral ischemia. Sequential gene activation in cerebral ischemia provides a plausible molecular explanation for the prolonged treatment window observed for inhibition of the end-target gene product, SUR1, by glibenclamide.

SUMMARYSulfonylurea receptor 1 (SUR1) is a molecule with more diverse and critically important functions than previously recognized. Long viewed simply as a subunit involved in formation of subset of K (ATP) channels, accumulating evidence indicates that SUR1 is newly upregulated in CNS ischemia and injury and is surprisingly promiscuous in its association with different pore-forming subunits, which endow it with new roles not previously envisioned. In this review, we focus on the SUR1-regulated NC(Ca-ATP) channel, its emerging role in CNS ischemia and trauma, and the growing evidence from preclinical and clinical studies demonstrating the potential importance of block of SUR1 by sulfonylureas such as glibenclamide (glyburide) in conditions as seemingly diverse as stroke and spinal cord injury.