Introduction: Pulicaria gnaphalodes contains terpenoids and flavonoids. Referring to the role of benzodiazepine (BZD) receptor ligands as drug candidates in the treatment of epilepsy, anxiety and sleep disturbances, and since natural flavonoids are among these candidates and hold promise as BZD receptor ligands, this research was done to assess the effects of aqueous extract and essential oi...

The herbal medicine Saiko-keishi-to (SK1 is effective for refractory epileptics (Narita et al., 19821. SK inhibits pentylenetetrazol (PTZf-induced bursting activity in snail neurons (Sugaya et al., 19781 and also inhibits intracellular abnormal behavior and abnormal calcium-related intracellular protein changes during bursting activity induced by PTZ (Sugaya et al., 19851. In clinical use, SK s...

The neuronal transcriptome changes dynamically to adapt to stimuli from the extracellular and intracellular environment. In this study, we adapted for the first time a click chemistry technique to label the newly synthesized RNA in cultured hippocampal neurons and intact larval zebrafish brain. Ethynyl uridine (EU) was incorporated into neuronal RNA in a time- and concentration-dependent manner...

A review of the publications in traditional medicine indicates that the root of Glycyrrhiza glabra L., Fabaceae, is recommended for treatment of epilepsy. As a renewable source, the leaves of G. glabra var. glandulifera growing in Iran were examined for possible anticonvulsant activity. The anticonvulsant activity of the leaves' ethanol extract and dichloromethane, f1, n-Hexane, f1A, and methan...

Metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGluR5) regulates the translation of amyloid precursor protein (APP) mRNA. Under resting conditions, mRNA is bound to and translationally repressed by the fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP). Upon group 1 mGluR activation, FMRP dissociates from the mRNA and translation ensues. APP levels are elevated in the dendrites of primary neuronal cultures as wel...

Diacylglycerol kinase (DGK) is an enzyme that converts diacylglycerol to phosphatidic acid. Several DGK isoforms have been implicated in the pathogenesis of seizure, but the role of DGKβ in seizure is unknown. In the present study, we investigated the involvement of DGKβ in seizure using DGKβ knockout (KO) mice. Seizures were more severe in DGKβ KO mice than in wild-type (WT) mice after pentyle...

Tinnitus affects approximately 50 million people in the USA alone, with 10 million being highly debilitated. Pharmacotherapy for tinnitus is still in emerging stages due to time consuming clinical trials and/or animal experiments. We tested a new cellular model where induced rapid neuronal firing or spiking was used as a mimic for the type of aberrant activity that may occur in tinnitus. Sponta...