3.1. Fer-1 exhibits an anticonvulsant effect in the acute stage of PTE
In order to evaluate the therapeutic effect of Fer-1 on PTE, we firstly investigated whether Fer-1 exerted anticonvulsant effects in a mouse model of FeCl3-induced epilepsy. The injected site for Fer-1 was the somatosensory cortex as marked in Figure 2A. It was found that stereotactic injection of Fer-1 at the dose of 1 pmol significantly decreased the seizure score in this mouse model compared with vehicle-treated group, notably at the interval time of 70-90 min (Figure 2B). Furthermore, EEG power analysis also revealed that the power per day and total power were both evidently diminished in mice subjected to PTE when treatment with Fer-1 (Figure 2C, Figure 2D and Figure 2F), despite no significant difference was found in the aspect of baseline power among all groups before FeCl3 or Fer-1 injection (Figure 2E). Epileptiform activity usually includes spikes (Aarts et al., 1984). The results of Figure 2G showed that spikes were remarkably suppressed in PTE on the day 1, day 2 and day 3 after administration of Fer-1, indicating the suppression of epileptiform discharge in PTE by Fer-1. Besides, in an acute stage of a mouse model of FeCl3 injection, treatment with Fer-1 obviously reduced seizures per day (Figure 2H) and the number of seizures (Figure 2J), increased seizure latency (Figure 2I) and reduced time in seizure (Figure 2K). Taken together, these date suggest that Fer-1 exerts potent anticonvulsant effects in an acute model of PTE.