No abstract

The ACTH4-9 Analogue (ORG 2766) is an orally administered neuropeptide which has been showed to have behavioral effects in human subjects, but does not have any steroidogenic effects, nor other significant side effects. This study was a double-blind, crossover trial of the ACTH4-9 analogue in four children with intractable seizures. There was some slight improvement in seizure frequency in two patients, with an equivocal improvement in a third child. A fourth child was unchanged, while the fifth dropped out of the study. There were no side effects from the therapy. This questionable improvement in seizure frequency in some of the most intractable patients with seizure disorders indicates the need to further assess this ACTH4-9 analogue in a larger study over a longer period of time.

In the monkey, the blood-brain barrier and the blood-aqueous and blood-vitreous barriers of the eye can be opened by internal carotid perfusion of solutions of 2 molar urea in a way compatible with survival and, in some few cases, without detectable neurological deficits. Urea presumably acts by osmotically shrinking the endothelial cells of the cerebrovascular vessels and opening their tight junctions. The high incidence of brain necrosis with neurological sequelae after perfusion of urea by the present technique precludes the use of osmotic opening of the blood-brain barrier for pharmacotherapy at this time.

No abstract

Since the proposed mode of action of dipropylacetic acid, an anticonvulsant, is to increase central nervous system gamma-aminobutyric acid levels, we used this agent to treat identical twins with juvenile Huntington's chorea. Their clinical status did not improve immediately after they received dipropylacetic acid. Furthermore, long-term administration (over a year) of high doses of the agent (up to 2,400 mg per day; 92 mg per kilogram per day) did not seem to alter the slow progression of their disease. Prior to treatment with dipropylacetic acid, the twins had normal cerebrospinal fluid gamma-aminobutyric acid levels. In addition, cerebrospinal fluid 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid and homovanillic acid were determined before and after 18 hours of high-dose probenecid. The former showed a normal threefold to fourfold increase after probenecid administration, but homovanillic acid had a distinctly subnormal turnover after probenecid, with only a threefold rather than the normal tenfold increase.