Ameri A
Department of Pharmacy and Pharmacology of Natural Compounds, University of Ulm, Germany.
Naunyn Schmiedebergs Arch Pharmacol. 1997 Apr;355(4):538-44. doi: 10.1007/pl00004980.
The effects of the Aconitum alkaloid 6-benzoylheteratisine on neuronal activity was investigated in the in vitro slice preparation of rat hippocampus by extracellular recording of the stimulus-evoked population spike. 6-Benzoylheteratisine (0.01-10 microM) depressed the orthodromic and antidromic population spike in a concentration-dependent manner. The action of the drug was activity-dependent. The latency of onset of the inhibition was accelerated when the frequency of electrical stimulation had been increased. Furthermore, the effect of 6-benzoylheteratisine was evaluated in two different models of epileptiform activity induced either by blockade of GABA receptors by bicuculline (10 microM) or by a nominal Mg2+-free bathing medium. Due to the activity-dependent mode of action, this drug effectively reduced the number and the size of the synaptically evoked population spikes in the presence of bicuculline or nominal Mg2+-free bathing medium, respectively.
