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Query: UMLS:C0036572 (seizures)
 80,221 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Evidence that biogenic amines and a neuroactive purine are involved in pathophysiological mechanisms of experimental seizures produced by electroshock or pentylenetetrazol is reviewed. Diminishing the influence of norepinephrine (NE) in the brain by depleting its content or by blockade of beta adrenoreceptors enhances seizure activity, and increasing its influence may suppress seizures. Serotonin appears to have action similar to that of NE, but dopamine has little effect in these seizure models. Adenosine also appears to suppress seizure activity. Thus NE, serotonin, and adenosine may be natural, endogenous substances that inhibit or confine seizure activity in the brain.
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PMID:Regulatory effects of neurotransmitters on electroshock and pentylenetetrazol seizures. 614 28

Male Long-Evans rats were stereotaxically implanted with a bipolar electrode in the central amygdala and with a stainless-steel cannula in the lateral cerebral ventricle. Rats were then kindled once daily until 3 consecutive Stage 5 kindled seizures were elicited. Adenosine analogues were injected into the lateral cerebral ventricle to examine their effects on behavioral seizures and afterdischarge duration following a kindling stimulus. 5'-N-ethylcarboxamidoadenosine (NECA) and (-)-N-(1-methyl-2-phenylethyl)-adenosine(L-phenylisopropyladenosine) (L-PIA) produced dose-related reductions of amygdaloid-kindled seizures with NECA exhibiting slightly more potent anticonvulsant activity than L-PIA. Parenteral injections of caffeine, at a dose which had no effect on seizure parameters, antagonized the anticonvulsant effects of NECA. These results are consistent with the notion that adenosine is a modulator of synaptic activity in the CNS and methylxanthines exert a specific antagonism of central adenosine receptors.
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PMID:Anticonvulsant effects of adenosine analogues on amygdaloid-kindled seizures in rats. 673 23

Adenosine and its immediate metabolites, inosine and hypoxanthine, were measured in mouse brain following the induction of electroshock seizures and after a subconvulsive series of electric shocks. Electroshock seizures resulted in a marked and prolonged rise in inosine, with maximal values at 5 min. Hypoxanthine increased more slowly but reached high levels by 10 min. Adenosine was unchanged. Phenytoin and to a lesser extent phenobarbital reduced these effects. Following the subconvulsive stimulus, 15 single shocks over an interval of 5 sec, inosine increased rapidly, adenosine rose slightly, and hypoxanthine did not change. Both phenytoin and phenobarbital blocked these increases in adenosine and inosine. Early elevations in inosine may play some role in seizure generation and propagation. The high levels of inosine and hypoxanthine found after recovery may be involved in the termination of epileptic activity, possibly by interacting with the benzodiazepine receptor for which they are ligands.
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PMID:Electroshock seizures in mice: effect on brain adenosine and its metabolites. 728 83

A variety of neurotransmitter receptor changes occur after a course of electroconvulsive seizures (ECS) in rats, including an increased density of adenosine A1 sites. Adenosine antagonism has been related to the proconvulsant action of methylxanthines such as caffeine. We determined tonic-clonic seizure duration in rats given ECS with caffeine (0-175 mg/kg, IP) after a course of one or six daily ECS. A single day of ECS did not affect the dose-dependent proconvulsant action of caffeine. After six daily ECS, the proconvulsant action of caffeine was reduced. After nine daily ECS, an A1 antagonist (8-cyclopentyl-1,3-dipropylxanthine) and an A2A antagonist (1-allyl-3,7-dimethyl-8-p-sulfophenylxanthine) showed reduced proconvulsant activity. The results suggest that the reduced proconvulsant action of caffeine after chronic ECS depends on adenosine antagonism.
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PMID:Reduced proconvulsant activity of caffeine in rats after a series of electroconvulsive seizures. 767 57

Adenosine and adenosine analogues have potent anticonvulsant effects on various seizure models, including kindling, an animal model of temporal lobe epilepsy. It is now reported that binding of a specific ligand (cyclohexyladenosine) to adenosine A1 receptors is not changed in the cerebral cortex of kindled rats. However, the affinity of cyclohexyladenosine to adenosine receptors is significantly increased in the hippocampus. In addition, cyclohexyladenosine is slightly more potent to inhibit [3H]D-aspartate outflow from hippocampal synaptosomes taken from kindled than from control rats. Taken together, these data suggest that an increased affinity of adenosine to A1 receptors may play a role in the anticonvulsant effect of adenosine A1 analogues in the kindling model.
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PMID:Adenosine A1 receptors in the rat brain in the kindling model of epilepsy. 787 26

Adenosine is an endogenous neuromodulator that suppresses excitatory neurotransmission. We postulated that adenosine-mediated mechanisms resist status epilepticus (SE) entry and limit SE severity. In the first experiment rats were given an adenosine agonist (2-chloroadenosine), an adenosine antagonist (aminophylline), or saline vehicle, prior to SE induction with pulsed-train current delivered to amygdala in successive 5-min current-on sessions. Saline-treated animals entered limbic SE, with predominantly exploratory behavior, after 6.0 +/- 0.9 current-on sessions. Aminophylline increased major convulsive activity during stimulation and resulted in entry into convulsive SE after only 2.1 +/- 0.1 sessions. 2-Chloroadenosine, in contrast, suppressed major convulsive activity during stimulation, and blocked (in 3/7) or delayed (4/7) SE entry, with successes requiring 12.8 +/- 0.9 stimulation sessions. In a second experiment, animals already in exploratory SE were administered a single injection of saline vehicle, aminophylline, or 2-chloroadenosine. Aminophylline converted exploratory SE into lethally severe convulsive SE. 2-Chloroadenosine suppressed SE behaviorally and electrographically, and protected recipients from the seizure-associated cerebral damage seen in saline-administered SE controls. These results support the hypothesis that endogenous adenosine mechanisms resist SE entry, modulate the severity of ongoing SE, and limit the anatomic spread of seizure activity.
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PMID:Effect of an adenosine antagonist and an adenosine agonist on status entry and severity in a model of limbic status epilepticus. 808 55

Most currently available antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) were developed by testing new compounds in animal models of seizures. Increased knowledge of the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying normal CNS function and seizure phenomena is now being used to design new AEDs specifically to interfere with epileptic mechanisms. Focal epilepsy develops in areas of cortex that are damaged and in which aberrant recurrent excitatory circuits develop, producing spike discharges in the EEG. Occasionally, normal membrane conductances and inhibitory synaptic currents break down and excess excitability spreads, either locally to produce a focal seizure or more widely to produce a generalized seizure. Both original synchronous activation and seizure spread appear to utilize normal synaptic pathways and mechanisms. Much new development of AEDs is targeted at modulating these excitatory and inhibitory synaptic effects, focusing directly on multiple components of glutamate and GABA receptors. Intrinsic, voltage-dependent currents are also involved in the pathophysiology of epileptic processes. Calcium currents act to amplify excess neuronal depolarization during hypersynchronous activation, are involved in neurotransmitter release, and play a role in the development of longer-term changes in synaptic efficacy, which may be involved in some seizure phenomena. They also appear to be involved in some forms of primary generalized epilepsy, in which burst discharges due to calcium currents in deep diencephalic neurons with widely ramifying axons may act as synchronizing influences. Neuromodulatory agents, including purines, peptides, cytokines, and steroid hormones, also play important roles in regulating brain excitability. Adenosine in some experimental models act as an endogenous antiepileptic substance, and agents that enhance the actions of adenosine are often antiepileptic in animal models.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:Emerging insights into mechanisms of epilepsy: implications for new antiepileptic drug development. 817 19

Adenosine has been shown to be a major regulator of neuronal activity in convulsive disorders, exerting its anticonvulsant effect through central A1 adenosine receptors. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of generalized tonic-clonic seizures induced by pentylentetrazol on regional changes in A1 adenosine receptor density and distribution in the mouse brain by in vitro quantitative autoradiography. As radioligand the specific agonist of A1 receptors [3H]cyclohexyladenosine was used. After two consecutive (once daily) pentylentetrazol-induced convulsions a widespread upregulation of A1 receptor density was detected with a marked enhancement in structures that mediate seizure activity like hippocampus, mamillary bodies, septum, substantia nigra, thalamic nuclei and cerebral cortices. On the contrary, in basal ganglia a significant downregulation of A1 receptors was observed. These results indicate that: (i) the observed increases or decreases in A1 receptor density are organized in selective anatomical structures related to seizure development rather than uniform in the brain; and (ii) since the upregulation of A1 receptors is sufficient to enhance the physiological depressive response of adenosine, the overall evoked increases seen here may lead to a stronger inhibitory tone and accordingly to a more efficient anticonvulsant effect of endogenous adenosine.
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PMID:Effect of pentylentetrazol-induced seizures on A1 adenosine receptor regional density in the mouse brain: a quantitative autoradiographic study. 825 29

Adenosine receptors have been the target of intense research with respect to potential use of selective ligands in a variety of therapeutic areas. Caffeine and theophylline are adenosine receptor antagonists, and over the past three decades a wide range of selective agonists and antagonists for adenosine receptor subtypes have been developed. A complication to the therapeutic use of adenosine receptor ligands is the observation that the effects of acute administration of a particular ligand can be diametrically opposite to the chronic effects of the same ligand. This 'effect inversion' is discussed here by Ken Jacobson and colleagues, and has been observed for effects on cognitive processes, seizures and ischaemic damage.
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PMID:Adenosine receptor ligands: differences with acute versus chronic treatment. 893 47

The influence of adenosine, its analogs: (-)N6-(R-phenylisopropyl)-adenosine (R-PIA), N6-cyclohexyladenosine (CHA), 5-(N-ethylcarboxamido)-adenosine (NECA), adenosine uptake inhibitor-dipyridamole, and theophylline and caffeine (adenosine receptor antagonists) on ethanol withdrawal syndrome was investigated in rats. Adenosine (100 mg/kg ip), all adenosine analogs and dipyridamole (30 mg/kg ip) reduced the number of rats in which audiogenic convulsions appeared. Caffeine and theophylline (5-25 mg/kg ip) did not influence significantly the audiogenic seizures, but they antagonized the depressing effects of adenosine analogs on these withdrawal symptoms. The results suggest that adenosine mechanisms in the brain may be implicated in the development of ethanol withdrawal syndrome.
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PMID:Influence of adenosinergic drugs on ethanol withdrawal syndrome in rats. 911 97


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