Acta Pharm. 67 (2017) 543-555

 

full paper

Original research paper

 

Evaluation of immunomodulatory effects of lamotrigine in BALB/c mice

Eman Y. Abu-rish, Shada Y. Elhayek, Yehia S. Mohamed, Islam Hamad and Yasser Bustanji

e.aburish@ju.edu.jo

1  Department of Biopharmaceutics and Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, The University of Jordan, Amman, 11942, Jordan

2 Department of Medical Microbiology, College of Medicine, University of Dammam, Dammam 31451, PO Box 2114, Saudi Arabia

3 Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Al-Azhar University, Egypt

4 Department of Pharmacy, American University of Madaba, PO Box: 2882 Amman 11821 Jordan

5 Hamdi Mango Center for Scientific Research, The University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan

Accepted August 8, 2017

Published online September 13, 2017

 

Modulation of the immune system has recently been shown to be involved in the pharmacological effects of old antiepileptic drugs and in the pathogenesis of epilepsy. Therefore, the most recent guidelines for immunotoxicological evaluation of drugs were consulted to investigate the immunomodulatory effects of lamotrigine, a newer antiepileptic drug, in BALB/c mice. These included the in vivo effects of lamotrigine on delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) response to sheep red blood cell (SRBC) antigens, hemagglutination titer assays and hematological changes. In vitro effects of lamotrigine on ConA-induced splenocyte proliferation and cytokine secretion were assessed. The results showed that lamotrigine treatment significantly increased the DTH response to SRBC in the mouse model of this study. This was accompanied by a significant increase in relative monocyte and neutrophil counts and in spleen cellularity. Lamotrigine significantly inhibited ConA-induced splenocyte proliferation in vitro and it significantly inhibited IL-2 and TNF-α secretion in ConA-stimulated splenocytes. In conclusion, the results demonstrated significant immunomodulatory effects of lamotrigine in BALB/c mice. These data could expand the understanding of lamotrigine-induced adverse reactions and its role in modulating the immune system in epilepsy.

 

Keywords: lamotrigine, epilepsy, cytokine, hypersensitivity, immunomodulatory effect, immunotoxicity