Nicotine Protects against Systematic Kanic Acid-induced Excitotoxic Effects
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-1995
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1006/exnr.1995.1103
Abstract
(-)-Nicotine was shown to produce in vivo protection against neurobehavioral effects caused by systemically administered kainic acid (KA), an excitotoxin that has been widely used to induce temporal lobe convulsions including "wet dog shakes" in experimental animals. Rats pretreated with (-)-nicotine (0.5 mg/kg sc) 15 min before receiving KA (12.0 mg/kg sc) exhibited a marked reduction (P < 0.5) in the number of wet dog shakes when compared to saline-pretreated rats. Similarly, little visible brain damage was found in the (-)-nicotine-pretreated rats, but a widespread reduction in acetylcholinesterase-positive neurons was noted in the hippocampal areas of the saline-pretreated animals. While the mechanism of neuroprotection of (-)-nicotine is still not known, these findings suggest that (-)-nicotine may act as a therapeutic agent for putative excitotoxin-mediated disorders.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
Yes
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Experimental Neurology, v. 136, issue 2, p. 261-265
Scholar Commons Citation
Borlongan, Cesario V.; Shytle, Roland D.; Ross, Shajmil D.; Shimizu, Toru; Freeman, Thomas B.; Cahil, David W.; and Sanberg, Paul R., "Nicotine Protects against Systematic Kanic Acid-induced Excitotoxic Effects" (1995). Psychology Faculty Publications. 377.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/psy_facpub/377
