1. Academic Validation
  2. Suppressing pro-inflammatory prostaglandin signaling attenuates excitotoxicity-associated neuronal inflammation and injury

Suppressing pro-inflammatory prostaglandin signaling attenuates excitotoxicity-associated neuronal inflammation and injury

  • Neuropharmacology. 2019 May 1;149:149-160. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropharm.2019.02.011.
Jianxiong Jiang 1 Ying Yu 2 Erika Reime Kinjo 3 Yifeng Du 3 Hoang Phuong Nguyen 2 Ray Dingledine 4
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Drug Discovery Center, College of Pharmacy, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN, USA; Division of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA. Electronic address: jjiang18@uthsc.edu.
  • 2 Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Drug Discovery Center, College of Pharmacy, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN, USA.
  • 3 Division of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA.
  • 4 Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology, School of Medicine, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Abstract

Glutamate receptor-mediated excitotoxicity is a common pathogenic process in many neurological conditions including epilepsy. Prolonged seizures induce elevations in extracellular glutamate that contribute to excitotoxic damage, which in turn can trigger chronic neuroinflammatory reactions, leading to secondary damage to the brain. Blocking key inflammatory pathways could prevent such secondary brain injury following the initial excitotoxic insults. Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) has emerged as an important mediator of neuroinflammation-associated injury, in large part via activating its EP2 receptor subtype. Herein, we investigated the effects of EP2 receptor inhibition on excitotoxicity-associated neuronal inflammation and injury in vivo. Utilizing a bioavailable and brain-permeant compound, TG6-10-1, we found that pharmacological inhibition of EP2 receptor after a one-hour episode of kainate-induced status epilepticus (SE) in mice reduced seizure-promoted functional deficits, cytokine induction, reactive gliosis, blood-brain barrier impairment, and hippocampal damage. Our preclinical findings endorse the feasibility of blocking PGE2/EP2 signaling as an adjunctive strategy to treat prolonged seizures. The promising benefits from EP2 receptor inhibition should also be relevant to other neurological conditions in which excitotoxicity-associated secondary damage to the brain represents a pathogenic event.

Keywords

Blood-brain barrier; EP2 receptor; Epilepsy; Excitotoxicity; Kainate; Neuroprotection; PGE(2); Prostaglandin; Seizure.

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