Levetiracetam mediates subtle pH-shifts in adult human neocortical pyramidal cells via an inhibition of the bicarbonate-driven neuronal pH-regulation - Implications for excitability and plasticity modulation.

Autor: Bonnet U; Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatic Medicine, Evangelisches Krankenhaus Castrop-Rauxel, Academic Teaching Hospital of the University Duisburg-Essen, Castrop-Rauxel, Germany; Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Medicine, LVR-Hospital Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany. Electronic address: udo.bonnet@uni-due.de., Bingmann D; Institute of Physiology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany., Speckmann EJ; Institute of Physiology, University of Münster, Germany., Wiemann M; Institute of Physiology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany; IBE R&D gGmbH, Institute for Lung Health, D-48149 Münster, Germany.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Brain research [Brain Res] 2019 May 01; Vol. 1710, pp. 146-156. Date of Electronic Publication: 2018 Dec 24.
DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2018.12.039
Abstrakt: The intracellular pH (pHi) of mammalian central neurons is tightly regulated and small pHi-fluctuations can fine-tune inter-/intracellular signaling, excitability, and synaptic plasticity. The research-gap about the pHi-regulation of human brain neurons is addressed here by testing possible influences of the anticonvulsant levetiracetam (LEV). BCECF-AM-loaded neocortical pyramidal cells were fluorometrically investigated in slice-preparations of tissue resected from the middle temporal gyrus of five adults with intractable temporal-lobe epilepsy. Recovery-slope from intracellular acidification following an ammonium prepulse (APP) was used to measure the pHi-regulation. Among twenty pyramidal cells exposed to 50 μM LEV, the resting pHi (7.09 ± 0.14) was lowered in eight (40%) neurons, on average by 0.02 ± 0.011 pH-units. In three (15%) and nine (45%) neurons, a minimal alkaline shift (0.017 ± 0.004 pH-units) and no pHi-shift occurred, respectively. The LEV-induced pHi-shifts were positively correlated with the resting pHi (r = 0.6, p = 0.006, n = 20). In five neurons, which all had responded on LEV with an acidification before, the recovery from APP-acidification was significantly delayed during LEV (p < 0.001). This inhibitory LEV-effect on pHi-regulation i) was similar to that of 200 μM 4,4'-diisothiocyanostilbene-2,2'-disulfonic acid (n = 2) and ii) did not occur under nominal bicarbonate-free conditions (n = 2). Thus, LEV lowered the pHi of human neocortical pyramidal cells most likely by a weakening of the transmembrane HCO3(-)-mediated acid-extrusion. This might contribute to LEV's anticonvulsive potency. Neurons with more acidic resting pHi-values showed a minimal alkalization upon LEV providing a mechanism for paradoxical proconvulsive LEV-effects rarely observed in epilepsy patients. The significance of these subtle pHi-shifts for cortical excitability and plasticity is discussed.
(Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE