Abstract
Clinical evidence implicates peripheral inflammatory diseases as comorbid factors in epilepsy. The present study was designed to determine the effect of the acute phase of antiviral response on seizure susceptibility. Young adult mice were intraperitoneally injected with 12 mg/kg of a viral mimic, polyinosinic:polycytidylic acid (PIC). After 48 h, seizures were induced by subcutaneous injection of kainic acid (KA). PIC-pretreatment profoundly enhances vulnerability to excitotoxic insult as evidenced by increased seizure intensity and extended duration of status epilepticus. These results support the notion that peripheral viral infections may alter brain function resulting in enhanced predilection to seizures.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Dantzer R (2006) Cytokine, sickness behavior, and depression. Neurol Clin 24:441–460
Fil D, Borysiewicz E, Konat GW (2011) A broad upregulation of cerebral chemokine genes by peripherally-generated inflammatory mediators. Metab Brain Dis (in press)
Fisher RS, van Emde BW, Blume W, Elger C, Genton P, Lee P, Engel J Jr (2005) Epileptic seizures and epilepsy: definitions proposed by the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) and the International Bureau for Epilepsy (IBE). Epilepsia 46:470–472
Guo W, Zou S, Tal M, Ren K (2002) Activation of spinal kainate receptors after inflammation: behavioral hyperalgesia and subunit gene expression. Eur J Pharmacol 452:309–318
Harre EM, Galic MA, Mouihate A, Noorbakhsh F, Pittman QJ (2008) Neonatal inflammation produces selective behavioural deficits and alters N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor subunit mRNA in the adult rat brain. Eur J Neurosci 27:644–653
Konat GW, Borysiewicz E, Fil D, James I (2009) Peripheral challenge with double-stranded RNA elicits global up-regulation of cytokine gene expression in the brain. J Neurosci Res 87:1381–1388
Lenczowski MJ, Van Dam AM, Poole S, Larrick JW, Tilders FJ (1997) Role of circulating endotoxin and interleukin-6 in the ACTH and corticosterone response to intraperitoneal LPS. Am J Physiol 273:R1870–R1877
Morrison RS, Wenzel HJ, Kinoshita Y, Robbins CA, Donehower LA, Schwartzkroin PA (1996) Loss of the p53 tumor suppressor gene protects neurons from kainate-induced cell death. J Neurosci 16:1337–1345
Quan N, Banks WA (2007) Brain-immune communication pathways. Brain Behav Immun 21:727–735
Riazi K, Galic MA, Pittman QJ (2010) Contributions of peripheral inflammation to seizure susceptibility: cytokines and brain excitability. Epilepsy Res 89:34–42
Tellez-Zenteno JF, Matijevic S, Wiebe S (2005) Somatic comorbidity of epilepsy in the general population in Canada. Epilepsia 46:1955–1962
Traynor TR, Majde JA, Bohnet SG, Krueger JM (2004) Intratracheal double-stranded RNA plus interferon-gamma: a model for analysis of the acute phase response to respiratory viral infections. Life Sci 74:2563–2576
Vezzani A, Granata T (2005) Brain inflammation in epilepsy: experimental and clinical evidence. Epilepsia 46:1724–1743
Weber F, Wagner V, Rasmussen SB, Hartmann R, Paludan SR (2006) Double-stranded RNA is produced by positive-strand RNA viruses and DNA viruses but not in detectable amounts by negative-strand RNA viruses. J Virol 80:5059–5064
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kirschman, L.T., Borysiewicz, E., Fil, D. et al. Peripheral immune challenge with dsRNA enhances kainic acid-induced status epilepticus. Metab Brain Dis 26, 91–93 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11011-011-9236-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11011-011-9236-z