Selective Blockade of PGE2 EP1 Receptor Protects Brain against Experimental Ischemia and Excitotoxicity, and Hippocampal Slice Cultures against Oxygen-Glucose Deprivation

Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) enzyme increases abnormally during excitotoxicity and cerebral ischemia and promotes neurotoxicity. Although COX-2 inhibitors could be beneficial, they have significant side effects. We and others have shown that the EP1 receptor is important in mediating PGE(2) toxicity. Here, we tested the hypothesis that pretreatment with a highly selective EP1 receptor antagonist, ONO-8713, would improve stroke outcome and that post-treatment would attenuate NMDA-induced acute excitotoxicity and protect organotypic brain slices from oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD)-induced toxicity. Male C57BL/6 mice were injected intracerebroventricularly with ONO-8713 before being subjected to 90-min middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) and 96-h reperfusion. Significant reduction in infarct size was observed in groups given 0.1 (25.9 +/- 4.7%) and 1.0 nmol (27.7 +/- 2.8%) ONO-8713 as compared with the vehicle-treated control group. To determine the effects of ONO-8713 post-treatment on NMDA-induced excitotoxicity, mice were given a unilateral intrastriatal NMDA injection followed by one intraperitoneal injection of 10 mu g/kg ONO-8713, 1 and 6 h later. Significant attenuation of brain damage (26.6 +/- 4.9%) was observed at 48 h in the ONO-8713-treated group. Finally, brain slice cultures were protected (25.5 +/- 2.9%) by the addition of ONO-8713 to the medium after OGD. These findings support the notion that the EP1 receptor propagates neurotoxicity and that selective blockade could be considered as a potential preventive and/or therapeutic tool against ischemic/hypoxic neurological conditions.