Effects of Huperzine used as pre-treatment against soman-induced seizures.

Huperzine A (HUP), an alkaloid isolated from the Chinese club moss, Huperzia serrata is a reversible inhibitor of cholinesterases which crosses the blood-brain barrier and shows high specificity for acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and a prolonged biological half-life. We tested, in vivo, its efficiency in protecting cortical AChE from soman inhibition and preventing subsequent seizures. The release of acetylcholine (ACh) was also followed in the cortex of freely moving rats using microdialysis techniques. We previously found that soman-induced seizures occurred in rodents only when the cortical AChE inhibition was over 65% and when the increase of ACh level was over 200 times the baseline level. This was verified in the present study in control animals intoxicated by 1 LD50 of soman (90 microg/kg). Using the same dose of soman in rats pre-treated with 500 microg/kg of HUP, we observed that 93% of the animals survived and none of them had seizures. This dose of HUP reduced AChE inhibition to 54% and increase of ACh level to 230 times baseline value. HUP thus appears as a promising compound to protect subjects against organophosphorus intoxication.

Triggering of soman-induced seizures in rats: multiparametric analysis with special correlation between enzymatic, neurochemical and electrophysiological data.

Soman, an anticholinesterasic neurotoxic drug, induces epileptic seizures during severe intoxication. The neuropathological lesions then observed are linked to the appearance of these seizures, but their trigger conditions still remain unknown and a great variability between animals is observed. We have developed a technique allowing, in freely moving rats, the in vivo determination of three sets of neurophysiological data, before and during a soman intoxication. For the same rat, we associated cortical acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity by microdialysis with both the assay of extracellular acetylcholine (ACh) concentrations and electroencephalographic (EEG) recording and power spectrum analysis (gamma band). Data have been analyzed to define the critical parameters which lead to the epileptic fit. Although we found thresholds for seizure occurrence, AChE inhibition having to be over 65% and ACh over 200-fold the baseline, these two criteria are not sufficient to predict the appearance of seizures. Only animals with no increase of energy in the gamma band early after soman poisoning will then exhibit an epileptic fit. Gamma band energy is modulated by noradrenergic activity and might be related to the sympathetic response to stress. So we can hypothesize, that the variation of energy in gamma band after intoxication, which might be related to stress adaptation strategy, may determine whether or not the animal will exhibit an epileptic fit.