Effects of oxcarbazepine on monoamines content in hippocampus and head and body shakes and sleep patterns in kainic acid-treated rats

Abstract

The aim of this work was to analyze the effect of oxcarbazepine (OXC) on sleep patterns, "head and body shakes" and monoamine neurotransmitters level in a model of kainic-induced seizures. Adult Wistar rats were administered kainic acid (KA), OXC or OXC + KA. A polysomnographic study showed that KA induced animals to stay awake for the whole initial 10 h. OXC administration 30 min prior to KA diminished the effect of KA on the sleep parameters. As a measure of the effects of the drug treatments on behavior, head and body shakes were visually recorded for 4 h after administration of KA, OXC + KA or saline. The presence of OXC diminished the shakes frequency. 4 h after drug application, the hippocampus was dissected out, and the content of monoamines was analyzed. The presence of OXC still more increased serotonin, 5-hidroxyindole acetic acid, dopamine, and homovanilic acid, induced by KA.

Monoaminergic Mechanisms in Epilepsy May Offer Innovative Therapeutic Opportunity for Monoaminergic Multi-Target Drugs

“…Similarly as described above for 5-HT, acute kainic acid-induced seizures increased hippocampal DA tissue content and extracellular DA levels, (Alfaro-Rodriguez et al, 2011; Tchekalarova et al, 2015b) while during the spontaneous recurrent limbic seizures in the kainic acid model, decreases in DA content were found (Tchekalarova et al, 2011). In the pilocarpine rat model, DA hippocampal content (Cavalheiro et al, 1994) and hippocampal DA levels (Meurs et al, 2008) were increased during the acute seizure phase.…”

“…Acute seizure evocation with KA led to increases in hippocampal 5-HT tissue content and extracellular 5-HT levels (Alfaro-Rodriguez et al, 2011; Tchekalarova et al, 2015a) while during the spontaneous recurrent limbic seizures in the KA model decreases in 5-HT content were found (Tchekalarova et al, 2011). In another well-established post-SE rat model for focal epilepsy using pilocarpine (i.e., a muscarinergic receptor agonist) as the chemoconvulsant, 5-HT hippocampal content (Cavalheiro et al, 1994) and hippocampal 5-HT levels (Meurs et al, 2008) were increased during the acute seizure phase but not during the following spontaneous recurrent seizure phase (Cavalheiro et al, 1994; Szyndler et al, 2005).…”