Effect of the glycine/NMDA receptor partial agonist, D-cycloserine, on seizure threshold and some pharmacodynamic effects of MK-801 in mice.

Acute treatment of mice with D-cycloserine (a high efficacy, partial agonist at strychnine-insensitive glycine receptors) resulted in dose- and time-dependent increases in the threshold for electrically induced tonic seizures. This anticonvulsant effect was observed at doses which did not induce motor impairment, as determined by the rotarod test. Despite the relatively high intrinsic efficacy of D-cycloserine at glycine receptors, this drug did not produce proconvulsant effects in mice at any of the doses (5-320 mg/kg) or time points examined. Prolonged treatment with D-cycloserine led to a reduction of its anticonvulsant effect. Similar to D-cycloserine, the uncompetitive N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist, MK-801 (dizocilpine), dose dependently increased the electroconvulsive threshold. Combined treatment with MK-801 and D-cycloserine led to significant anticonvulsant effects, but these effects were simply additive and not synergistic. In contrast to anticonvulsant activity, the motor impairing effect of MK-801 was markedly potentiated by D-cycloserine. The data substantiate that high efficacy glycine/NMDA receptor partial agonists such as D-cycloserine exert anticonvulsant activity at non-toxic doses. The finding that motor impairing but not anticonvulsant effects of MK-801 were potentiated by D-cycloserine suggests that different pharmacodynamic actions of NMDA receptor antagonists are differentially modulated by the glycine receptor, which could be related to the regional heterogeneity of the NMDA receptor complex in the brain.