Efeito da pregabalina em astrócitos: combate à excitotoxicidade glutamatérgica?

Abstract

Glutamate is the main neurotransmitter secreted by excitatory cortical neurons, and when in excess, can be toxic to neural cells, causing damage and even cell death. Astrocytes play the essential role of reabsorbing glutamate from the synaptic cleft, preventing excitotoxicity events. The present study sought to analyze the effect of a drug named pregabalin, which binds to voltage-gated calcium channels, and can influence on glutamate’s metabolism. The research was conducted utilizing primary astrocyte cultures, neuronal lineage CLU189 cultures and co-cultures of the two cell types, which were submitted to treatments of different concentrations of glutamate, pregabalin or both. After, cell viability assays and immunofluorescence were performed. The results showed that pregabalin does not reduce exogenous glutamate’s toxicity, and it seems to act sensitizing the cells to glutamate, or acting together, somehow, with glutamate causing more cell death. Further studies must be executed in order to elucidate pregabalin’s mechanism of action.