Department of Medicine and Aging Sciences, "G. D'Annunzio" University of Chieti-Pescara, 66100 Chieti, Italy.
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School Initiative for RNA Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Biosensors (Basel). 2021 Nov 12;11(11):450. doi: 10.3390/bios11110450.
Levetiracetam (LEV) is a broad-spectrum and widely used antiepileptic drug that also has neuroprotective effects in different neurological conditions. Given its complex interaction with neuronal physiology, a better comprehension of LEV effects on neurons activity is needed. Microelectrode arrays (MEAs) represent an advanced technology for the non-invasive study of electrophysiological activity of neuronal cell cultures. In this study, we exploited the Maestro Edge MEA system, a platform that allows a deep analysis of the electrical network behavior, to study the electrophysiological effect of LEV on a mixed population of human neurons (glutamatergic, GABAergic and dopaminergic neurons, and astrocytes). We found that LEV significantly affected different variables such as spiking, single-electrode bursting, and network bursting activity, with a pronounced effect after 15 min. Moreover, neuronal cell culture completely rescued its baseline activity after 24 h without LEV. In summary, MEA technology confirmed its high sensitivity in detecting drug-induced electrophysiological modifications. Moreover, our results allow one to extend the knowledge on the electrophysiological effects of LEV on the complex neuronal population that resembles the human cortex.
左乙拉西坦(LEV)是一种广谱且广泛使用的抗癫痫药物,在不同的神经状况下也具有神经保护作用。鉴于其与神经元生理学的复杂相互作用,需要更好地理解 LEV 对神经元活动的影响。微电极阵列(MEA)代表了一种用于非侵入性研究神经元细胞培养物电生理活性的先进技术。在这项研究中,我们利用了 Maestro Edge MEA 系统,该平台允许对电网络行为进行深入分析,以研究 LEV 对混合人群的人类神经元(谷氨酸能、GABA 能和多巴胺能神经元以及星形胶质细胞)的电生理作用。我们发现 LEV 显著影响了不同的变量,如尖峰、单电极爆发和网络爆发活动,在 15 分钟后表现出明显的效果。此外,神经元细胞培养物在没有 LEV 的情况下 24 小时后完全恢复其基线活动。总之,MEA 技术证实了其在检测药物引起的电生理改变方面的高灵敏度。此外,我们的结果允许人们扩展关于 LEV 对类似于人类皮层的复杂神经元群体的电生理作用的知识。