Effect of Lovastatin on PTZ-Induced Seizure Threshold in Mice

2 Abstract: The 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitors (statins) have been unequivocally shown to reduce cardiovascular morbidity and mortality by their lipid-lowering actions. It has been suggested that statins appear to have therapeutic benefits in diseases that are unrelated to elevated serum cholesterol levels. The aim of this study was to evaluation the effect of intraperitoneally injection of different doses of lovastatin on PTZ-induced seizure threshold in mice. Mice were divided into 9 groups randomly: the first group received saline normal (i.p) (control group); the second group received carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) 0.5% (i.p) (vehicle group) and the next groups received respectively different doses of lovastatin (1, 5, 10, 20, 40, 80 and 100 mg/kg b. wt. daily) for 4 days (ip) before determination of seizure threshold induced by PTZ. Results showed that PTZ-induced seizure threshold in control mice was 35.48±1.39 mg/kg b. wt.. Intraperitoneal injection of lovastatin showed significant (P<0.05) increase of PTZ-induced seizure threshold in a dose dependently manner. According to our results, lovastatin has anticonvulsant effects on mice. Nevertheless, new studies must be carried out in order to determine the beneficial effects of statins in treatment of epilepsy.