TY - JOUR AU - Dai Si-jie AU - Shao Yu-ying AU - Zheng Yang AU - Sun Jin-yi AU - Li Zhi-sheng AU - Shi Jia-ying AU - Yan Meng-qi AU - Qiu Xiao-yun AU - Xu Ceng-lin AU - Cho Wan-sang AU - Nishibori Masahiro AU - Yi Sihyeong AU - Park Seung Bum AU - Wang Yi AU - Chen Zhong PY - 2023 TI - Inflachromene attenuates seizure severity in mouse epilepsy models via inhibiting HMGB1 translocation JF - Acta Pharmacologica Sinica; Vol 44, No 9 (September 2023): Acta Pharmacologica Sinica Y2 - 2023 KW - N2 - Epilepsy is not well controlled by current anti-seizure drugs (ASDs). High mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) is a DNA-binding protein in the nucleus regulating transcriptional activity and maintaining chromatin structure and DNA repair. In epileptic brains, HMGB1 is released by activated glia and neurons, interacting with various receptors like Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and downstream glutamatergic NMDA receptor, thus enhancing neural excitability. But there is a lack of small-molecule drugs targeting the HMGB1- related pathways. In this study we evaluated the therapeutic potential of inflachromene (ICM), an HMGB-targeting small-molecule inhibitor, in mouse epilepsy models. Pentylenetetrazol-, kainic acid- and kindling-induced epilepsy models were established in mice. The mice were pre-treated with ICM (3, 10 mg/kg, i.p.). We showed that ICM pretreatment significantly reduced the severity of epileptic seizures in all the three epilepsy models. ICM (10 mg/kg) exerted the most apparent anti-seizure effect in kainic acid- induced epileptic status (SE) model. By immunohistochemical analysis of brain sections from kainic acid-induced SE mice, we found that kainic acid greatly enhanced HMGB1 translocation in the hippocampus, which was attenuated by ICM pretreatment in subregion- and cell type-dependent manners. Notably, in CA1 region, the seizure focus, ICM pretreatment mainly inhibited HMGB1 translocation in microglia. Furthermore, the anti-seizure effect of ICM was related to HMGB1 targeting, as pre-injection of anti- HMGB1 monoclonal antibody (5 mg/kg, i.p.) blocked the seizure-suppressing effect of ICM in kainic acid-induced SE model. In addition, ICM pretreatment significantly alleviated pyramidal neuronal loss and granule cell dispersion in kainic acid-induced SE model. These results demonstrate that ICM is an HMGB-targeting small molecule with anti-seizure potential, which may help develop a potential drug for treating epilepsy. UR - http://www.chinaphar.com/article/view/10882