Ethacrynic acid-induced glutamate release from mouse brain synaptosomes

Ethacrynic Acid: A Promising Candidate for Drug Repurposing as an Anticancer Agent

Ethacrynic acid (ECA) is a diuretic that inhibits Na-K-2Cl cotransporter (NKCC2) present in the thick ascending loop of Henle and muculo dens and is clinically used for the treatment of edema caused by excessive body fluid. However, its clinical use is limited due to its low bioavailability and side effects, such as liver damage and hearing loss at high doses. Despite this, ECA has recently emerged as a potential anticancer agent through the approach of drug repositioning, with a novel mechanism of action. ECA has been shown to regulate cancer hallmark processes such as proliferation, apoptosis, migration and invasion, angiogenesis, inflammation, energy metabolism, and the increase of inhibitory growth factors through various mechanisms. Additionally, ECA has been used as a scaffold for synthesizing a new material, and various derivatives have been synthesized. This review explores the potential of ECA and its derivatives as anticancer agents, both alone and in combination with adjuvants, by examining their effects on ten hallmarks of cancer and neuronal contribution to cancer. Furthermore, we investigated the trend of synthesis research of a series of ECA derivatives to improve the bioavailability of ECA. This review highlights the importance of ECA research and its potential to provide a cost-effective alternative to new drug discovery and development for cancer treatment.

Rapamycin down-regulates KCC2 expression and increases seizure susceptibility to convulsants in immature rats

Seizure susceptibility to neurological insults, including chemical convulsants, is age-dependent and most likely reflective of overall differences in brain excitability. The molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying development-dependent seizure susceptibility remain to be fully understood. Because the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway regulates neurite outgrowth, synaptic plasticity and cell survival, thereby influencing brain development, we tested if exposure of the immature brain to the mTOR inhibitor rapamycin changes seizure susceptibility to neurological insults. We found that inhibition of mTOR by rapamycin in immature rats (3-4 weeks old) increases the severity of seizures induced by pilocarpine, including lengthening the total seizure duration and reducing the latency to the onset of seizures. Rapamycin also reduces the minimal dose of pentylenetetrazol (PTZ) necessary to induce clonic seizures. However, in mature rats, rapamycin does not significantly change the seizure sensitivity to pilocarpine and PTZ. Likewise, kainate sensitivity was not significantly affected by rapamycin treatment in either mature or immature rats. Additionally, rapamycin treatment down-regulates the expression of potassium-chloride cotransporter 2 (KCC2) in the thalamus and to a lesser degree in the hippocampus. Pharmacological inhibition of thalamic mTOR or KCC2 increases susceptibility to pilocarpine-induced seizure in immature rats. Thus, our study suggests a role for the mTOR pathway in age-dependent seizure susceptibility.

Long-lasting c-fos and NGF mRNA expressions and loss of perikaryal parvalbumin immunoreactivity in the development of epileptogenesis after ethacrynic acid-induced seizure

A single cerebroventricular injection of ethacrynic acid (EA), a Cl(-)-ATPase inhibitor, induces generalized tonic-clonic convulsions in mice. To clarify whether such convulsive stimulus triggers a long-lasting rearrangement of the neural circuitry culminating in seizure susceptibility, we examined molecular, cellular and behavioral changes following the EA-induced seizure. The expression of immediate early gene c-fos mRNA as an index for cellular activation increased biphasically, with an early transient increase at 60 min and a late prolonged increase on the 10th to 14th day post-EA administration, most remarkably in the hippocampus and pyriform cortex. On the 14th day post-EA seizure, subconvulsive dose of kainic acid (5-17.5 mg/kg) caused severe (stage 5) seizure in 77% of the mice, with 70% mortality. In addition, the expression of nerve growth factor (NGF) also showed biphasic increases with close spatiotemporal correlation with c-fos expression. Moreover, the number of cell somata and the density of axon fibers of parvalbumin (PARV)-positive cells, a subpopulation of GABAergic interneurons, decreased in area dentata, CA1 and CA3 on the 7th and 14th day post-EA seizure. In area dentata and CA1, the density of glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD)-positive cells also decreased on the 14th day. Thus, the transient EA-induced seizures appear to develop seizure susceptibility by causing damage of a subpopulation of inhibitory interneurons along with increases in the expression of c-fos and NGF in limbic structures.

A Cl- pump in rat brain neurons

Cl(-)-stimulated and ethacrynic acid-sensitive ATPase (Cl(-)-ATPase) of plasma membrane origin in the rat brain is a candidate for an active outwardly directed Cl- translocating system. Biochemistry of Cl(-)-ATPase and ATP-dependent Cl- transport (Km values for ATP and Cl-, nucleotide specificity, pH dependency, and sensitivity to ethacrynic acid) suggested that Cl(-)-ATPase is an ATP-driven Cl- pump. Activity of the reconstituted Cl(-)-ATPase/pump increased in the presence of phosphatidylinositol-4-monophosphate, and this pump activity further increased at an inside-positive membrane potential or in the presence of a protonophore, suggesting that the Cl(-)-ATPase/pump is an electrogenic Cl- transporter, probably regulated by phosphoinositide turnover in vivo. In cultured hippocampal pyramidal cell-like neurons from embryonic rat brain, ethacrynic acid and ATP-consuming treatment increased, but furosemide, an inhibitor of Na+/K+/Cl- cotransporter, decreased, [Cl-]i when monitored using Cl(-)-sensitive fluorescent probes. The stationary levels of [Cl-]i were lower and the effects of ethacrynic acid were more prominent in perikarya than in dendrites, while the effects of furosemide were more obvious in dendrites than in perikarya. The lower perikaryonic [Cl-]i and the marked effects of ethacrynic acid were observed in the later stage rather than in the early stage of culture. Thus, region-specific localization and developmental changes in the activities of Cl- transporters probably result in uneven and age-dependent distribution of Cl- in the neurons.

Ethacrynic acid-induced convulsions and brain neurotransmitters in mice

Intracerebroventricular injection of ethacrynic acid (50% convulsive dose; 50 micrograms/mouse) accelerated the synthesis/turnover of 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) but suppressed the synthesis of gamma-aminobutyric acid and acetylcholine in mouse brain. These effects were completely antagonized by pretreatment with a glutamate/N-methyl-D-aspartate antagonist, aminophosphonovaleric acid. In ethacrynic acid-induced convulsions, these neurotransmitter systems may be differentially modulated, probably through activation of glutaminergic neurons in the brain.