Facilitation of amygdala kindling development and kindled seizures by metaphit.

The effect of metaphit (a phencyclidine analogue with an acylating isothiocyanate) on kindling development and kindled seizures from amygdala was investigated in rats pretreated once with metaphit. Administration of a single dose of metaphit (10 or 20 mg/kg intraperitoneally i.p.) 4 h before the first electrical stimulation of the amygdala did not in itself induce seizures, but greatly facilitated development of behavioral seizures during kindling. This effect persisted throughout the whole process of electrical amygdala kindling without further dosing. In contrast, metaphit only transiently and modestly increased the growth of afterdischarge (AD) duration. In kindled rats, pretreatment with a single dose of metaphit (20 mg/kg) 8 h before the test stimulation reduced the threshold current required to elicit a stage 5 seizure and shortened the latency for bilateral forelimb clonus (BFC) without changing AD duration or BFC duration. The facilitation of kindling development and kindled seizures may be due to an excessive excitatory transmission by metaphit in the limbic seizure circuitry.