STUDY OF THE USE OF DIMETHYL SULFOXIDE (DMSO) AS A SOLVENT IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF ANTIEPILEPTIC DRUGS

DMSO is a compound that is widely used to dissolve and deliver many water-insoluble compounds and has various biological effects on the central nervous system. So the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of dimethyl sulfoxide on experimental epileptic-like activities induced by intraperitoneal injection of pentylenetetrazole in adult male rats.

In this study, 20 adult male Wistar rats (200-250 g) were used in 4 groups. The control group (5 heads) received normal saline (200 µl) and the 3 groups (15 heads, 5 heads per subgroup) were treated with 10, 50 and 100% DMSO (200µl) intraperitoneally, respectively. After anesthesia with the combination of ketamine-xylazine (80+8 mg/kg) and surgery of the animal skull, the electrode was inserted into the skull layer in the CA1 hippocampal striatum layer and epileptic activities were induced by intraperitoneal injection of pentylenetetrazol (80 mg/kg) and epileptic activity was measured and evaluated in terms of number of spikes per unit time and their amplitude by eTrace software.

The results of the present study showed that injectable dimethyl sulfoxide has a dose-dependent effect on pentylenetetrazol-induced epileptiform activity in the hippocampus, so that the concentration of 10% reduced the desired activity significantly (p<0.05) compared to the control group. So, it has protective effect against pentylenetetrazol-induced epileptiform activity. While concentration of 100% dimethylsulfoxide significantly (p<0.05) increased pentylenetetrazol-induced epileptiform activity compared tocontrol group and had proconvulsant effect in seizure activity. However, 50% concentration of dimethyl sulfoxide had no significant effect on the activity.

Low concentrations of dimethylsulfoxide are likely to be used as novel drug solvents for different models of epilepsy to deliver the drug to the central nervous system, however further investigation and testing are needed.