Poster session 4, Abstracts 1131–1166

• Book ID: 102503211
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 234 KB
• Volume: 19
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-3185
• DOI: 10.1002/mds.20182

✦ Synopsis

Only symptomatic treatments of limited efficacy are available in striatonigral degeneration (SND)/multiple system atrophy-parkinsonism (MSA-P). We investigated the potency of riluzole, an anti-glutamatergic drug, to jam the neuronal death process in a phenotypic MPTP ϩ 3-nitropropionic acid mouse model of SND/MSA-P. We used a "neuronal rescue" strategy by administering riluzole (for 7 days) only after the end of intoxication. The motor disorder, its recovery, behavioral performances at motor and sensorimotor integration tests (rotarod, pole test, traversing a beam, open-field), and histopathological outcome were compared in the control (saline, n ϭ 7) and riluzole groups (10 mg/kg, n ϭ 7; 20 mg/kg, n ϭ 7), matched by triplets for motor severity. While riluzole did not produce any effect on the gross motor disorder nor on rotarod task or open-field kinetic variables, riluzole allowed better recovery on the beamtraversing task and the pole test. Accordingly, the histopathological outcome was significantly better in the riluzole-treated mice regarding both nigral and dorsolateral striatal cell loss and astroglial activation, with a dose-effect relationship. Thus, riluzole induces subtle symptomatic effects but has "neuronal rescue" properties in a SND/MSA-P phenotypic animal model.