Carbamazepine protects against megencephaly and abnormal expression of BDNF and Nogo signaling components in the mceph/mceph mouse

• Main Authors: Catharina Lavebratt, Alexandra Trifunovski, Ann-Sophie Persson, Fu-Hua Wang, Tomas Klason, Inger Öhman, Anna Josephsson, Lars Olson, Christian Spenger, Martin Schalling
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2006-11-01
• Series: Neurobiology of Disease
• Subjects: Megalencephaly; Epilepsy; Antiepileptic drug, potassium channel
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969996106001756

Carbamazepine (CBZ) is a commonly used antiepileptic drug known to block voltage-gated sodium channels. Infants exposed to CBZ in utero show reduced head circumference, for reasons unknown. We investigated CBZ's effect on neural growth in megencephaly (mceph/mceph) mice lacking functional Kv1.1. Mice fed with CBZ were assessed for brain structure size, seizure behavior and expression of markers for neuronal plasticity and rescue in brain. CBZ counteracted brain overgrowth and the increased size of neurons in the mceph/mceph mouse. These effects of CBZ occurred at doses that did not fully suppress epileptic behavior. Furthermore, CBZ normalized Bdnf mRNA levels and mRNA species encoding Nogo signaling pathway proteins. In conclusion, CBZ protects efficiently against abnormal growth and abnormal expression patterns of nerve growth signaling systems in the mceph/mceph brain. These observations and the effect of CBZ in utero suggest that CBZ treatment might be advantageous in some types of human idiopathic megalencephaly.