Evaluation of clinically relevant glutamate pathway inhibitors in in vitro model of Huntington's disease

Jun Wu, Tieshan Tang, Ilya Bezprozvanny

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

46 Scopus citations

Abstract

Huntington's disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant, inherited and fatal neurodegenerative disorder for which there is, at present, no effective treatment or cure. Striatal medium spiny neurons (MSN) are the most sensitive in HD. Dysregulation of glutamate/calcium signaling pathway emerges as a possible cause of striatal MSN neurodegeneration in HD. Here we evaluated five clinically relevant glutamate pathway inhibitors using previously developed in vitro HD model. We found that folic acid, gabapentin and lamotrigine did not protect HD neurons from glutamate-induced cell death, but memantine and riluzole were protective. Our results provide further support to potential use of memantine and riluzole for treatment of HD.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)219-223
Number of pages5
JournalNeuroscience letters
Volume407
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 30 2006

Keywords

  • Apoptosis
  • Calcium
  • Glutamate
  • Huntington's disease
  • Memantine
  • Riluzole
  • TUNEL
  • Transgenic mice

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Neuroscience

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Evaluation of clinically relevant glutamate pathway inhibitors in in vitro model of Huntington's disease'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this