V. Mary et al., EFFECT OF RILUZOLE ON QUINOLINATE-INDUCED NEURONAL DAMAGE IN RATS - COMPARISON WITH BLOCKERS OF GLUTAMATERGIC NEUROTRANSMISSION, Neuroscience letters, 201(1), 1995, pp. 92-96
Intrastriatal injection of quinolinate, an N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA)
agonist, induces a local neuronal lesion, and provides an excitotoxic
model of Huntington's disease. In this study, we investigated the eff
ect of different agents acting at various levels of the glutamatergic
neurotransmission: (i) dizocilpine (MK801) (0.5 mg/kg ip) significantl
y reduced the lesion by 74%; (ii) 6-(1-imidazolyl)-7-nitroquinoxaline-
2,3(1H,4H)-dione (YM-90K) (3 x 10 and 3 x 20 mg/kg ip) and (iii) lamo
trigine (50 mg/kg ip) had no effect; (iv) riluzole (4 and 8 mg/kg per
os) significantly reduced the lesion by 35%. The inefficiency of YM-90
K suggested that pha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxasole-4-propionate (A
MPA) receptors do not participate to the quinolinate-induced excitotox
icity. The mechanism of action of riluzole may be related also to a co
mbination of its different properties. This study indicates that riluz
ole may be useful for treatment of Huntington's disease.