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Comparison of the toxicokinetics of the convulsants picrotoxinin and tetramethylenedisulfotetramine (TETS) in mice.

ABSTRACT: Acute intoxication with picrotoxin or the rodenticide tetramethylenedisulfotetramine (TETS) can cause seizures that rapidly progress to status epilepticus and death. Both compounds inhibit γ-aminobutyric acid type-A (GABA_A) receptors with similar potency. However, TETS is approximately 100 × more lethal than picrotoxin. Here, we directly compared the toxicokinetics of the two compounds following intraperitoneal administration in mice. Using LC/MS analysis we found that picrotoxinin, the active component of picrotoxin, hydrolyses quickly into picrotoxic acid, has a short in vivo half-life, and is moderately brain penetrant (brain/plasma ratio 0.3). TETS, in contrast, is not metabolized by liver microsomes and persists in the body following intoxication. Using both GC/MS and a TETS-selective immunoassay we found that mice administered TETS at the LD₅₀ of 0.2 mg/kg in the presence of rescue medications exhibited serum levels that remained constant around 1.6 μM for 48 h before falling slowly over the next 10 days. TETS showed a similar persistence in tissues. Whole-cell patch-clamp demonstrated that brain and serum extracts prepared from mice at 2 and 14 days after TETS administration significantly blocked heterologously expressed α₂β₃γ₂ GABA_A-receptors confirming that TETS remains pharmacodynamically active in vivo. This observed persistence may contribute to the long-lasting and recurrent seizures observed following human exposures. We suggest that countermeasures to neutralize TETS or accelerate its elimination should be explored for this highly dangerous threat agent.

SUBMITTER: Pressly B

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7303059 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Tetramethylenedisulfotetramine (TETS) is a potent convulsant poison that is thought to trigger seizures by inhibiting the function of the type A gamma-aminobutyric acid receptor (GABAAR). Acute intoxication with TETS can cause vomiting, convulsions, status epilepticus (SE) and even death. Clinical case reports indicate that individuals who survive poisoning may exhibit long-term neuropsychological issues and cognitive deficits. Therefore, the objective of this research was to determine whether a recently described mouse model of acute TETS intoxication exhibits persistent behavioral deficits. Young adult male NIH Swiss mice received a seizure-inducing dose of TETS (0.15mg/kg, ip) and then were rescued from lethality by administration of diazepam (5mg/kg, ip) approximately 20min post-TETS-exposure. TETS-intoxicated mice typically exhibited 2 clonic seizures prior to administration of diazepam with no subsequent seizures post-diazepam injection as assessed using behavioral criteria. Seizures lasted an average of 72s. Locomotor activity, anxiety-like and depression-relevant behaviors and cognition were assessed at 1week, 1month and 2months post-TETS exposure using open field, elevated-plus maze, light?dark transitions, tail suspension, forced swim and novel object recognition tasks. Interestingly, preliminary validation tests indicated that NIH Swiss mice do not respond to the shock in fear conditioning tasks. Subsequent evaluation of hot plate and tail flick nociception tasks revealed that this strain exhibits significantly decreased pain sensitivity relative to age- and sex-matched C57BL/6J mice, which displayed normal contextual fear conditioning. NIH Swiss mice acutely intoxicated with TETS exhibited no significant anxiety-related, depression-relevant, learning or memory deficits relative to vehicle controls at any of the time points assessed with the exception of significantly increased locomotor activity at 2months post-TETS intoxication. The general absence of long-term behavioral deficits in TETS-intoxicated mice on these six assays suggests that the neurobehavioral consequences of TETS exposure described in human survivors of acute TETS intoxication are likely due to sustained seizure activity, rather than a direct effect of the chemical itself. Future research efforts are directed toward developing an animal model that better recapitulates the SE and seizure duration reported in humans acutely intoxicated with TETS.

Project description:Acute intoxication with tetramethylenedisulfotetramine (TETS) can trigger status epilepticus (SE) in humans. Survivors often exhibit long-term neurological effects, including electrographic abnormalities and cognitive deficits, but the pathogenic mechanisms linking the acute toxic effects of TETS to chronic outcomes are not known. Here, we use advanced in vivo imaging techniques to longitudinally monitor the neuropathological consequences of TETS-induced SE in two different mouse strains. Adult male NIH Swiss and C57BL/6J mice were injected with riluzole (10 mg/kg, i.p.), followed 10 min later by an acute dose of TETS (0.2 mg/kg in NIH Swiss; 0.3 mg/kg, i.p. in C57BL/6J) or an equal volume of vehicle (10% DMSO in 0.9% sterile saline). Different TETS doses were administered to trigger comparable seizure behavior between strains. Seizure behavior began within minutes of TETS exposure and rapidly progressed to SE that was terminated after 40 min by administration of midazolam (1.8 mg/kg, i.m.). The brains of vehicle and TETS-exposed mice were imaged using in vivo magnetic resonance (MR) and translocator protein (TSPO) positron emission tomography (PET) at 1, 3, 7, and 14 days post-exposure to monitor brain injury and neuroinflammation, respectively. When the brain scans of TETS mice were compared to those of vehicle controls, subtle and transient neuropathology was observed in both mouse strains, but more extensive and persistent TETS-induced neuropathology was observed in C57BL/6J mice. In addition, one NIH Swiss TETS mouse that did not respond to the midazolam therapy, but remained in SE for more than 2 h, displayed robust neuropathology as determined by in vivo imaging and confirmed by FluoroJade C staining and IBA-1 immunohistochemistry as readouts of neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation, respectively. These findings demonstrate that the extent of injury observed in the mouse brain after TETS-induced SE varied according to strain, dose of TETS and/or the duration of SE. These observations suggest that TETS-intoxicated humans who do not respond to antiseizure medication are at increased risk for brain injury.

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Comparison of the toxicokinetics of the convulsants picrotoxinin and tetramethylenedisulfotetramine (TETS) in mice.

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