Objective:

Epilepsy, a chronic and complex disorder of the brain, is an important neurological problem worldwide. Novel drug objectives in the central nervous system (CNS) may present more effective choices in treatment of epilepsy. The present study is designed to examine the effects of certain polyamines on seizures induced by pentylenetetrazole (PTZ) in rats.

Materials and Methods:

Female adult (250-300 g) Wistar albino rats were used in our study. They were randomly allocated into several groups (n=8 for each group). Spermine (1-4 mg/kg), spermidine (20-80 mg/kg), agmatine (160 mg/kg) or saline were injected to animals through intraperitoneal (IP) route 30 minutes prior to PTZ (40 mg/kg, IP) treatment. The onset time and severity of the seizures were assessed immediately after the treatment with PTZ.  

Results:

Spermidine treatments significantly shortened onset time of seizures, at all doses used in the study (p_s=0.0001). It significantly increased the severity of seizures at doses of 20 and 80 mg/kg (p=0.007 and p=0.03, respectively). Treatment with spermine significantly shortened onset time of seizures at dose of 4 mg/kg (p=0.002). While spermine (4 mg/kg) increased severity of seizures significantly (p=0.01; Dunnet’s test), it did not cause any noteworthy alteration on the severity of seizures at other doses. Agmatine (100 mg/kg) did not have any statistically significant effect on seizures.

Conclusion:

Our results suggest that spermine and spermidine but not agmatine cause some aggravating effects on the seizures induced by PTZ. The data indicate that polyamines in the CNS may be an important target for epilepsy.

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