Interaction of flunarizine with sodium valproate or ethosuximide in gamahydroxybutyrate induced absence seizures in rats

Abstract

<span style="font-size: 15.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:8.0pt;font-family:" times="" new="" roman","serif""="">Sodium valproate(VPA), ethosuximide(ESM), 200 mg/kg ip and flunarizine (FLU) 5 or 10 mg/kg ip were first administered independently to rats in order to study their effects on behavioural and EEG aspects of spike and wave

<span style="font-size: 15.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:8.0pt;font-family:" times="" new="" roman","serif""="">discharges (SWDs) induced by <span style="font-size:15.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:8.0pt; font-family:" arial","sans-serif""="">γ- <span style="font-size:15.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:8.0pt;font-family:" times="" new="" roman","serif""="">hydroxybutyrate (GHB,100 mg/kg ip). GHB treated rats show behavioural changes and concomitant repetitive EEG episodes of 7 to 9 Hz SWDs, mimicking human absence seizures (AS), and can be used as a pharmacological model. The number and duration of SWDs were calculated for 1 hr from the EEG and were parameters for drug evaluation. VPA and ESM at 200 mg/kg, significantly reduced SWD number and duration/hr, while FLU showed significant reduction only at 10 but not at 5 mg/kg. Combination of FLU, 10 mg/kg with either VPA or ESM showed

<span style="font-size: 15.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:8.0pt;font-family:" times="" new="" roman","serif""="">significant reduction of SWD number and duration, suggesting an additive effect of the anti-absence agents with the calcium channel blocker, FLU, on experimental absence seizures in rats.

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