Inhibitory Effect of High Dose of the Flavonoid Quercetin on Amygdala Electrical Kindling in Rats

Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disorder in which patients experience spontaneous recurrent seizures. Although the most commonly recommended therapy is drug treatment, some patients do not achieve adequate control of their seizures on existing drugs. New medications with novel mechanisms of action are needed to help those patients whose seizures are resistant to currently-available drugs. Therefore, the anti-convulsant effect of a high dose of quercetin was evaluated in amygdala kindling model in male rats. Rats were divided into sham-operated group, quercetintreated SH, kindled, and quercetin-treated kindled rats. Quercetin was administered i.p. one day before amygdale kindling for 3 weeks (40 mg/kg/day). The parameters seizure stage, AD duration, the latency to the onset of stage 4, and the duration of stage 5 were analyzed. The results showed that quercetin pretreatment causes a lower seizure intensity in treated kindled rats (p<0.05-0.01), a lower after-discharge duration (p<0.05-0.01), and a higher latency to stage IV (p<0.05) as compared to untreated kindled ones. To conclude, chronic administration of quercetin inhibits amygdala electrical kindling and more studies are warranted to clarify its underlying mechanisms.