Effects Of Scorpion Venom Heat Resistant Protein On The Excitability Of Acutely Isolated Rat Hippocampal Neurons

Backgroud and Objective: Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disorder, which is characterized by the recurrent appearance of spontaneous seizures due to abnormal, paroxysmal electrical discharge of neurons of the cerebral cortex. Increasing evidence suggests that even though epilepsy is no single syndrome, common pathogenetic processes either as basic mechanisms or as final common factors may be responsible as etiologic causes. At present, the hyperexcitability of neurons is considered as the essential mechanism underlying epilepsy.Scorpion has been used to treat various neurological symptoms for over 2000 years in China and it is the foremost choice for treatment of epilepsy as a traditional Chinese medicine. The effective part of scorpion is scorpion venom (SV). SV has been proven to have antiepileptic effects, but its neurotoxicity greatly restricts its clinical application. Our results from animal experiments show that the scorpion venom heat resistant protein (SVHRP) purified from scorpion venom by means of special methods has obvious antiepileptic effects and its neurotoxic side effects are diminished. However the underlying molecular mechanism is not clear. In the present study, the effects of SVHRP on the excitability of acutely isolated rat hippocampal neurons were observed in whole cell patch clamp recording to explore the probable molecular mechanism underlying the antiepileptic effect of SVHRP.