Premium
Valproic acid treatment results in increased accumulation of prion proteins
Author(s) -
Shaked Gideon M.,
Engelstein Roni,
Avraham Inbal,
Rosenmann Hannah,
Gabizon Ruth
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
annals of neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.764
H-Index - 296
eISSN - 1531-8249
pISSN - 0364-5134
DOI - 10.1002/ana.10298
Subject(s) - valproic acid , gene isoform , glycoprotein , incubation , incubation period , disease , pharmacology , drug , prion protein , chemistry , virology , medicine , biology , epilepsy , biochemistry , neuroscience , gene
PrP Sc , the only identified component of the prion, is an aberrant isoform of PrP C , a glycoprotein of unknown function. In this study, it was shown that valproic acid, a widely used antiepileptic drug, can cause an increase of several orders of magnitude in the accumulation of PrP C in normal neuroblastoma cells (N2a), and of both PrP isoforms in scrapie infected neuroblastoma cells (ScN2a). Although preliminary results indicate that valproic acid administration to hamsters inoculated with prions had no significant effect on disease incubation time, it is suggested that administration of valproic acid to humans at risk of developing Creutzfeldt‐Jakob disease should be evaluated with caution.