Chronic agomelatine treatment prevents comorbid depression in the post-status epilepticus model of acquired epilepsy through suppression of inflammatory signaling.

Chronic agomelatine treatment prevents comorbid depression in the post-status epilepticus model of acquired epilepsy through suppression of inflammatory signaling. Neurobiol Dis. 2018 Apr 10;: Authors: Tchekalarova J, Atanasova D, Kortenska L, Atanasova M, Lazarov N Abstract Inflammatory signal molecules are suggested to be involved in the mechanism underlying comorbid depression in epilepsy. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that the novel antidepressant agomelatine, a potent melatonin MT1 and MT2 receptor agonist and serotonin 5HT2C receptor antagonist, can prevent depressive symptoms developed during the chronic epileptic phase by suppressing an inflammatory response. Chronic treatment with agomelatine (40 mg/kg, i.p.) was initiated an hour after the kainate acid (KA)-induced status epilepticus (SE) and maintained for a period of 10 weeks in Wistar rats. Registration of spontaneous motor seizures was performed through a video (24 h/day) and EEG monitoring. Antidepressant activity of agomelatine was explored in the splash test, sucrose preference test (SPT) and forced swimming test (FST) while anxiolytic effect was observed through the novelty suppression-feeding test (NSFT) during chronic phase in epileptic rats. The frequency of motor seizures detected by video and EEG recording did not differ between vehicle and Ago group. Rats with registered spontaneous motor seizures showed symptoms typical for depressive b...
Source: Neurobiology of Disease - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: Neurobiol Dis Source Type: research