Valproate is neuroprotective against malonate toxicity in rat striatum: an association with augmentation of high-affinity glutamate uptake

The antiepileptic drug valproate (VPA) may be neuroprotective. We treated rats with VPA for 14 days (300 mg/kg twice daily) before intrastriatal injection of 1.5 μmol (1 M) of the succinate dehydrogenase inhibitor malonate. VPA-treated animals developed smaller lesions than control animals: 10 ± 2 mm3 versus 26 ± 8 mm3 (means ± SD; P = 10−4). Injection of NaCl that was equiosmolar with 1 M malonate caused lesions of only 1.2 ± 0.4 mm3 in control animals, whereas physiologic saline produced no lesion. VPA pretreatment reduced the malonate-induced extracellular accumulation of glutamate. This effect paralleled an increase in the striatal level of the glutamate transporter GLT, which augmented high-affinity glutamate uptake by 25%, as determined from the uptake of [3H] glutamate into striatal proteoliposomes. Malonate caused a 76% reduction in striatal adenosine triphosphate (ATP) content, but the glial, ATP-dependent formation of glutamine from radiolabeled glucose or glutamate was intact, indicating that glial ATP production supported uptake of glutamate. Striatal levels of HSP-70 and fos were reduced, and the levels of bcl-2 and phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinase remained unaffected, but histone acetylation was increased by VPA treatment. The results suggest that augmentation of glutamate uptake may contribute importantly to VPA-mediated neuroprotection in striatum.