2. Academic Validation
  3. Anticonvulsant properties of an oral ketone ester in a pentylenetetrazole-model of seizure

Anticonvulsant properties of an oral ketone ester in a pentylenetetrazole-model of seizure

  • Brain Res. 2015 Aug 27:1618:50-4. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2015.05.023.
Andrea Viggiano 1,  Raffaele Pilla 2,  Patrick Arnold 3,  Marcellino Monda 4,  Dominic D'Agostino 5,  Giangennaro Coppola 6
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Department Medicine and Surgery, University of Salerno, via Allende snc, Baronissi, SA, Italy. Electronic address: [email protected].
  • 2 Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology, Hyperbaric Biomedical Research Laboratory, Morsani College of Medicine, University of South Florida, 12901 Bruce B. Downs Blvd., MDC 8, Tampa, Florida; External Pharmacy of Fatebenefratelli Hospital, Viale Principe di Napoli 14/A, Benevento, Italy. Electronic address: [email protected].
  • 3 Savind, Inc., Seymour, IL, United States.
  • 4 Department of Experimental Medicine, Second University of Naples, Via De Crecchio 8, Italy. Electronic address: [email protected].
  • 5 Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology, Hyperbaric Biomedical Research Laboratory, Morsani College of Medicine, University of South Florida, 12901 Bruce B. Downs Blvd., MDC 8, Tampa, Florida. Electronic address: [email protected].
  • 6 Department Medicine and Surgery, University of Salerno, via Allende snc, Baronissi, SA, Italy; UO Child and Adolescent Neuropsychiatry, Medical School, University of Salerno, Largo Città di Ippocrate snc, Salerno, Italy.
PMID: 26026798 DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2015.05.023
Abstract

The ketogenic diet is known to have an anti-epileptic effect; in fact it is currently used to treat drug resistant epilepsies. The efficacy of this diet is thought to be correlated to the elevation of blood ketone bodies. Because of problems with compliance to this diet, there is an interest in evaluating alternative pharmacological treatments that can have anti-seizure effects by elevating ketone bodies. In the present experiment, an orally administered synthetic ketone ester (R,S - 1,3-butanediol acetoacetate diester, or BD-AcAc2) was evaluated for its anti-seizure efficacy in a rat model. The threshold for seizure induction with progressive intravenous infusion of pentylenetrazole (PTZ) was evaluated in anesthetized Wistar rats two hours after a single 1 ml intragastric administration of BD-AcAc2 (i.e. 4 g/kg b.w., treated group) or water (control group). After correction for the dose of anesthetic, the results showed that the administration of BD-AcAc2 induced an elevation of the PTZ threshold (140 ± 11 mg/kg for the treated group, 122 ± 6 mg/kg for the control group), along with an increased level of blood β-hydroxybutyrate (2.7 ± 0.3mM for the treated group, 1.4 ± 0.1mM for the control group). This result suggests that ketone esters may pave the road towards the establishment of a "ketogenic diet in a pill".

Keywords

Ketogenic diet; Ketone ester; Pentylenetetrazole; Seizure threshold.

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