Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0751295 (memory loss)
 3,619 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

A 24-years-old woman with epilepsy treated with valproic acid developed disorientation, acalculia, perseveration, slow responsiveness and loss of memory. The drug withdrawal induced a quick improvement of mental function. In this case, hyperammonemia, hypocarnitinemia, increased protein in cerebrospinal fluid were found. When the drug was discontinued, she had a dramatic improvement. Valproic acid caused encephalopathy because of metabolic abnormality in mitochondria in this case. In the cases of encephalopathy caused by valproic acid, the drug administration should be withdrawn, and appropriate measures had to be taken. In addition, elevation of ammonia in the blood, lactic acid and pyruic acid in the serum and cerebrospinal fluid, and decreased carnitine level in the serum will be useful to make a diagnosis of valproate-induced encephalopathy.
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PMID:[A case report of valproate encephalopathy]. 1065 74

Phenytoin (PHT) and Valproate (VPA) are known to induce cognitive dysfunction, in terms of long term memory loss. Nitric oxide (NO) on the other hand is said to help in long term potentiation and hence enhance memory. The effects of nitric oxide donor L-arginine (L-Arg) and nitric oxide synthase inhibitor N-W-L-Nitroarginine (L-NOARG) were studied on the cognitive dysfunction, induced by PHT and VPA in normal healthy rats, using the step-through passive avoidance test (PAT). It was observed that combining L-Arg with PHT significantly enhanced long term memory while, combining PHT with L-NOARG decreased it, as compared to PHT alone. When combined with VPA, L-Arg and L-NOARG increased the retention latency as compared to PVA alone but this was not statistically significant. We conclude that the No donor L-Arg is able to increase the difference in LTE in acquisition and retention trials with both PHT and VPA, but with VPA the increase is not statistically significant.
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PMID:Cognitive dysfunction induced by phenytoin and valproate in rats: effect of nitric oxide. 1077 88