title: The anticonvulsant response to valproate in kindled rats is correlated with its effect on neuronal firing in the substantia nigra pars reticulata: a new mechanism of pharmacoresistance.
abstract: Resistance to antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) is a major problem in epilepsy treatment. However, mechanisms of resistance are only incompletely understood. We have recently shown that repeated administration of the AED phenytoin allows selecting resistant and responsive rats from the amygdala kindling model of epilepsy, providing a tool to study mechanisms of AED resistance. We now tested whether individual amygdala-kindled rats also differ in their anticonvulsant response to the major AED valproate (VPA) and which mechanism may underlie the different response to VPA. VPA has been proposed to act, at least in part, by reducing spontaneous activity in the substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNr), a main basal ganglia output structure involved in seizure propagation, seizure control, and epilepsy-induced neuroplasticity. Thus, we evaluated whether poor anticonvulsant response to VPA is correlated with low efficacy of VPA on SNr firing rate and pattern in kindled rats. We found (1) that good and poor VPA responders can be selected in kindled rats by repeatedly determining the effect of VPA on the electrographic seizure threshold, and (2) a significant correlation between the anticonvulsant response to VPA in kindled rats and its effect on SNr firing rate and pattern. The less VPA was able to raise seizure threshold, the lower was the VPA-induced reduction of SNr firing rate and the VPA-induced regularity of SNr firing. The data demonstrate for the first time an involvement of the SNr in pharmacoresistant experimental epilepsy and emphasize the relevance of the basal ganglia as target structures for new treatment options.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology, and Pharmacy, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, and  Center for Systems Neuroscience, 30559 Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: Kathrin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Töllner
authors.forename: Saskia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wolf
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Löscher
authors.forename: Manuela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gernert
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials / Q000187:drug effects*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D000927:Anticonvulsants / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004558:Electric Stimulation / Q000009:adverse effects; D004566:Electrodes; D005260:Female; D007696:Kindling, Neurologic / Q000187:drug effects*; D009474:Neurons / Q000187:drug effects*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012640:Seizures / Q000188:drug therapy; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013378:Substantia Nigra / Q000166:cytology*; D014635:Valproic Acid / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D000927:Anticonvulsants; D014635:Valproic Acid
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