Estudo do potencial terapêutico do veneno de Dinoponera quadriceps sobre modelos de convulsão in vivo e sobre astrócitos in vitro

Abstract

In last years, considerable efforts have been made to identify neuroactive and neuroprotective peptides derived from the venom of different natural species. In this work, were studied the activity of Dinoponera quadriceps native (DqV) and denatured (DqDV) venom on chemically induced seizures models in vivo and on in vitro cortical astrocytes viability. Male Swiss mice (28- 33g) were pretreated with DqV (0.1 or 0.5 mg/kg, e.v., n = 6-8), DqDV (0.5 or 2.0 mg/kg, i.p., n = 6-8) or DqDV (0.1 or 0.5 mg/kg, e.v., n = 6-8). 30 minutes after the intraperitoneal pretreatment or ten minutes after intravenous pretreatment with the venom was induced seizures in all animals by the administration of pentylenetetrazole (80 mg/kg) pilocarpine (400 mg/kg) or strychnine (3.0 mg/kg). In behavioral analysis, we recorded the time to the first seizure and to death and the percentage of survival. To determine the parameters of oxidative stress was dissected three brain areas (prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and striatum) of animals used in behavioral analysis, in order to determine the degree of lipid peroxidation, by measuring the levels of malondialdehyde (MDA), and the content of nitrite. In in vitro assay, cell viability of cortical astrocytes was determined after treatment with different concentrations of DqV, PTZ and DqV + PTZ. The data were analyzed by ANOVA followed by a Student Newman-Keuls (for in vivo tests) or Bonferroni (for in vitro experiments) as post hoc tests. It was observed that the DqV had effect only on the PTZ model, both in behavioral analysis as for the determination of the oxidative parameters. Pretreatment with DqV significantly reduced the time until the occurrence of first seizure (0.1 mg/kg: 77.83 ± 5.27 compared to the 101.0 ± 3.31 seconds in the control group; 0.5 mg/kg: 74.43 ± 3.94 compared to the 101.0 ± 3.31 seconds in the control group), while DqDV caused an increase in the percentage of survival when pretreated by i.p. (0.5 mg/kg: 25% of survival compared with 0% in the control group, 2.0 mg/kg: 62.5% of survival compared with 0% in control group) and e.v (0.5 mg/kg: 28.57% of survival compared with 0% in control group). routes. In relation to the oxidative stress parameters, both pretreatments with DqV and with DqDV caused increases of MDA levels in all three brain areas analyzed. The nitrite content also increased after pretreatment with DqV in the three areas of the brain and after pretreatment with DqDV via e.v., only in the hippocampus. About cell viability assays, were observed that DqV was not able to change this parameter. The PTZ reduced the cell viability of astrocytes in a dose-dependent way, with an IC 50 (cytotoxicity index to 50% of the cell population under study) corresponding to 33.12 mM. The combined treatment of DqV (100 µg/mL) and PTZ (IC 50) also caused a reduction in cell viability. The results suggest that the DqV, probably, has both neurotoxic and neuroprotective components, and that the astrocytes should be the cells involved in the venom’s neurotoxicity.