POSTISCHEMIC ADMINISTRATION OF HU-211, A NOVEL NONCOMPETITIVE NMDA ANTAGONIST, PROTECTS AGAINST BLOOD-BRAIN-BARRIER DISRUPTION IN PHOTOCHEMICAL CORTICAL INFARCTION IN RATS - A QUANTITATIVE STUDY

We examined the effect of HU-211, a synthetic non-psychotropic cannabi noid with non-competitive N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) antagonist prope rties, on blood-brain barrier (BBB) integrity after photochemically in duced cortical infarction. Evans blue dye was used as a BBB permeabili ty indicator after unilateral thrombotic cortical infarction was produ ced photochemically by 560 nm light irradiation of the cortex in male Wistar rats receiving rose bengal intravenously. HU-211 was injected i n a dose of 4 mg/kg i.v. 30 min after stroke. Fluorometric measurement of Evans blue was performed 24 h later in six brain regions. Treatmen t with HU-211 significantly decreased extravasation of dye into the ar ea of infarct (405 +/- 19 vs. 539 +/- 33 mu g/g, mean +/- S.E.M.) as w ell as other sites of the affected hemisphere (866 +/- 68 vs. 1096 +/- 68 mu g/g) compared to the vehicle group. These data indicate that HU -211 is an effective drug in protecting against the effects of focal i schemia-induced BBB disruption in the rat and suggest that the drug ma y be an effective treatment against the ischemic cell death and BBB di sruption that can occur clinically following a stroke or cardiac arres t.