Seizures induced by alpha-guanidinoglutaric acid, a nitric oxide synthase inhibitor, are controlled by L-arginine.

We evaluated the effect of manipulation of nitric oxide (NO) synthesis on epileptiform discharges recorded from immobilized rats during intracerebroventricular injection of alpha-guanidinoglutaric acid (GGA), an endogenous convulsant and a NO synthase (NOS) inhibitor, alone or in combined with a NOS substrate, l-arginine (ARG). GGA alone, or combined with 50 mM ARG, resulted in prolonged electrographical seizures while co-injection of either 100 or 200 mM of ARG with GGA caused significantly protection. These data show that ARG inhibited epileptiform discharges in a dose-dependent fashion, suggesting that the discharges initiated by inhibition of NOS with the intrinsic convulsant GGA are abated by increasing the concentration of the NOS substrate ARG.