Excitotoxic profile of LY339434, a GluR5 agonist, in cultured murine cortical neurons

Apoptosis is not an invariable component of in vitro models of cortical cerebral ischaemia

Characterising the mechanisms of cell death following focal cerebral ischaemia has been hampered by a lack of an in vitro assay emulating both the apoptotic and necrotic features observed in vivo. The present study systematically characterised oxygen-glucose-deprivation (OGD) in primary rat cortical neurones to establish a reproducible model with components of both cell-death endpoints. OGD induced a time-dependent reduction in cell viability, with 80% cell death occurring 24 h after 3 h exposure to 0% O2 and 0.5 mM glucose. Indicative of a necrotic component to OGD-induced cell death, N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor inhibition with MK-801 attenuated neuronal loss by 60%. The lack of protection by the caspase inhibitors DEVD-CHO and z-VAD-fmk suggested that under these conditions neurones did not die by an apoptotic mechanism. Moderating the severity of the insult by decreasing OGD exposure to 60 min did not reduce the amount of necrosis, but did induce a small degree of apoptosis (a slight reduction in cell death was observed in the presence of 10 uM DEVD-CHO). In separate experiments purported to enhance the apoptotic component, cells were gradually deprived of O2, exposed to 4% O2 (as opposed to 0%) during the OGD period, or maintained in serum-containing media throughout. While NMDA receptor antagonism significantly reduced cortical cell death under all conditions, a caspase-inhibitor sensitive component of cell death was not uncovered. These studies suggest that OGD of cultured cortical cells models the excitotoxic, but not the apoptotic component of cell death observed in vivo.

Excitotoxic profiles of novel, low-affinity kainate receptor agonists in primary cultures of murine cerebellar granule cells

The involvement of low-affinity kainate (KA) receptors in neuronal injury was investigated by employing a variety of agonists active at GluR5-7. Their excitotoxic profiles were determined in primary cultures of cerebellar granule cells, which abundantly expressed low-affinity KA receptors, and in the absence of any AMPA receptor-mediated neurotoxicity. Neurotoxicity induced by these compounds was analysed by phase contrast microscopy, a cell viability assay, the TUNEL technique (apoptosis), and by employing propidium iodide (PI; necrosis). All agonists induced concentration-dependent neurotoxicity, with rank order (EC(50) values; microM): (S)-iodowillardiine (IW) 0.2>(2S,4R)-4-methylglutamate (4-MG) 36>(2S,4R,6E)-2-amino-4-carboxy-7-(2-naphthyl)hept-6-enoic acid (LY339434) 46>KA 74>(RS)-2-amino-3-(hydroxy-5-tert-butylisoxazol-4yl)propanoic acid (ATPA) 88. IW exposure resulted in apoptosis at lower concentrations (<30 microM) and necrosis at higher concentrations, both of which were attenuated by CNQX (50 microM), but not MK-801 (10 microM). ATPA-mediated neurotoxicity was purely apoptotic and was attenuated by the non-NMDA receptor antagonists. Both IW and ATPA induced injury with the morphological characteristics of apoptosis shown by the presence of TUNEL-positive neurones. LY339434-mediated neuronal injury was only attenuated by MK-801 and was necrotic in nature. Similarly, 4-MG (>30 microM) exposure caused necrosis that was partially attenuated by MK-801 (10 microM) and CNQX (50 microM). The patterns of neurotoxicity possessed a complex pharmacological profile, demonstrated an apoptotic-necrotic continuum and were inconsistent with past findings, further outlining the importance of characterizing novel compounds at native receptors. ATPA and to a lesser extent IW appear to be suitable drugs for low-affinity KA receptors. Since toxicity-mediated by low-affinity KA receptors seem likely to contribute to neurodegenerative conditions, our study importantly examines the excitotoxic profile of these novel agonists.