Blood Gases and Energy Metabolites in Mouse Blood Before and After Cerebral Ischemia: The Effects of Anesthetics.

Blood gases and energy metabolites in mouse blood before and after cerebral ischemia: the effects of anesthetics.

Exp Biol Med (Maywood). 2013 Jan 1; 238(1): 84-9
Schwarzkopf TM, Horn T, Lang D, Klein J

The levels of blood gases and energy metabolites strongly influence the outcome of animal experiments, for example in experimental stroke research. While mice have become prominent animal models for cerebral ischemia, little information is available on the effects of anesthetic drugs on blood parameters such as blood gases, glucose and lactate in this species. In this work, we collected arterial and venous blood samples from female CD-1 mice before and after cerebral ischemia induced by middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO), and we tested the influence of different anesthetic drugs. We found that all of the injectable anesthetics tested (ketamine/xylazine, chloral hydrate, propofol and pentobarbital) caused a decrease in blood pH and partial pressure of oxygen (pO) and an increase of partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO), indicating respiratory depression. This was not observed with inhalable anesthetics such as isoflurane, sevoflurane and halothane. Significant and up to two-fold increases of blood glucose concentration were observed under isoflurane, halothane, ketamine/xylazine, chloral hydrate, and propofol anesthesia. Lactate concentration rose significantly by 2-3-fold during inhalation of isoflurane and halothane treatment, but decreased by more than 50% after administration of pentobarbital. Permanent cerebral ischemia induced respiratory acidosis (low pH and pO, high pCO) which was most prominent after 24 h. Postsurgical treatment with Ringer-lactate solution (1 mL, intraperitoneal) caused a recovery of blood gases to basal levels after 24 h. Use of isoflurane for surgery caused a minor increase of blood glucose concentrations after one hour, but a strong increase of blood lactate. In contrast, anesthesia with pentobarbital did not affect glucose concentration but strongly reduced blood lactate concentrations one hour after surgery. All values recovered at three hours after MCAO. In conclusion, anesthetic drugs have a strong influence on murine blood parameters, which should be taken into account in experiments in mice. HubMed – depression

Synaptic plasticity by antidromic firing during hippocampal network oscillations.

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Mar 11;
Bukalo O, Campanac E, Hoffman DA, Fields RD

Learning and other cognitive tasks require integrating new experiences into context. In contrast to sensory-evoked synaptic plasticity, comparatively little is known of how synaptic plasticity may be regulated by intrinsic activity in the brain, much of which can involve nonclassical modes of neuronal firing and integration. Coherent high-frequency oscillations of electrical activity in CA1 hippocampal neurons [sharp-wave ripple complexes (SPW-Rs)] functionally couple neurons into transient ensembles. These oscillations occur during slow-wave sleep or at rest. Neurons that participate in SPW-Rs are distinguished from adjacent nonparticipating neurons by firing action potentials that are initiated ectopically in the distal region of axons and propagate antidromically to the cell body. This activity is facilitated by GABAA-mediated depolarization of axons and electrotonic coupling. The possible effects of antidromic firing on synaptic strength are unknown. We find that facilitation of spontaneous SPW-Rs in hippocampal slices by increasing gap-junction coupling or by GABAA-mediated axon depolarization resulted in a reduction of synaptic strength, and electrical stimulation of axons evoked a widespread, long-lasting synaptic depression. Unlike other forms of synaptic plasticity, this synaptic depression is not dependent upon synaptic input or glutamate receptor activation, but rather requires L-type calcium channel activation and functional gap junctions. Synaptic stimulation delivered after antidromic firing, which was otherwise too weak to induce synaptic potentiation, triggered a long-lasting increase in synaptic strength. Rescaling synaptic weights in subsets of neurons firing antidromically during SPW-Rs might contribute to memory consolidation by sharpening specificity of subsequent synaptic input and promoting incorporation of novel information. HubMed – depression

Prediction of drug-drug Interactions Between Various Antidepressants and Efavirenz or Boosted Protease Inhibitors Using a Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic Modelling Approach.

Clin Pharmacokinet. 2013 Mar 12;
Siccardi M, Marzolini C, Seden K, Almond L, Kirov A, Khoo S, Owen A, Back D

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The rate of depression in patients with HIV is higher than in the general population. The use of antidepressants can have a beneficial effect, improving antiretroviral therapy adherence and consequently their efficacy and safety. Efavirenz and protease inhibitor boosted with ritonavir are major components of the antiretroviral therapy and are inducers and/or inhibitors of several cytochrome P450 (CYP) isoforms. Although antidepressants are prescribed to a significant proportion of patients treated with antiretrovirals, there are limited clinical data on drug-drug interactions. The aim of this study was to predict the magnitude of drug-drug interactions among efavirenz, boosted protease inhibitors and the most commonly prescribed antidepressants using an in vitro-in vivo extrapolation (IVIVE) model simulating virtual clinical trials. METHODS: In vitro data describing the chemical characteristics, and absorption, distribution, metabolism and elimination (ADME) properties of efavirenz, boosted protease inhibitors and the most commonly prescribed antidepressants were obtained from published literature or generated by standard methods. Pharmacokinetics and drug-drug interaction were simulated using the full physiologically based pharmacokinetic model implemented in the Simcyp™ ADME simulator. The robustness of our modeling approach was assessed by comparing the magnitude of simulated drug-drug interactions using probe drugs to that observed in clinical studies. RESULTS: Simulated pharmacokinetics and drug-drug interactions were in concordance with available clinical data. Although the simulated drug-drug interactions with antidepressants were overall weak to moderate according to the classification of the US FDA, fluoxetine and venlafaxine represent better candidates from a pharmacokinetic standpoint for patients on efavirenz and venlafaxine or citalopram for patients on boosted protease inhibitors. CONCLUSION: The modest magnitude of interaction could be explained by the fact that antidepressants are substrates of multiple isoforms and thus metabolism can still occur through CYPs that are weakly impacted by efavirenz or boosted protease inhibitors. These findings indicate that IVIVE is a useful tool for predicting drug-drug interactions and designing prospective clinical trials, giving insight into the variability of exposure, sample size and time-dependent induction or inhibition. HubMed – depression

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