1Neurology Department, The First People’s Hospital of Jingzhou, The First Affiliated Hospital of Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434000, China
2Hubei Provincial Key Laboratory for Applied Toxicology, Hubei Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Wuhan 430079, China
3Department of Neuroscience, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
Hua Wang (wanghua6909@163.com)
Min Qu (minqu2977@163.com)

Abstract 

Gastrodin, the major component isolated from the rhizome of the Chinese traditional medicinal herb Gastrodia elata (“Tianma”), has a long history in the treatment of epilepsy and other neurological disorders. However, the molecular mechanisms are not clear. Here, we found that gastrodin ameliorated pentylenetetrazole (PTZ)-induced epileptic seizures with improvement of the electroencephalographic pattern in mice. Further studies demonstrated that gastrodin decreased the levels of the pro-inflammatory cytokines interleukin-1β and tumor necrosis factor-α while increasing interleukin-10, an anti-inflammatory cytokine in the brain. Furthermore, gastrodin attenuated the PTZ-induced microglial activation along with inhibition of mitogen-activated protein kinases, cAMP response element binding protein, and NF-κB. Our data suggest that gastrodin attenuates seizures by modulating the mitogen-activated protein kinase-associated inflammatory responses.

Keywords

Gastrodin, Epilepsy, IL-1β, TNF-α, IL-10, MAPK, CREB, NF-κB

[SpringerLink]