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Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, March 2002, p. 821-827, Vol. 46, No. 3
0066-4804/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/AAC.46.3.821-827.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Neurotoxic Mode of Action of Artemisinin

Gabriele Schmuck,^1* Elke Roehrdanz,^1, Richard K. Haynes,² and Regine Kahl³

Pharma Research Center, Bayer AG, D-42096, Wuppertal,¹ Department of Toxicology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany,³ Department of Chemistry, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong²

Received 25 June 2001/ Returned for modification 31 July 2001/ Accepted 21 December 2001

We recently described a screening system designed to detect neurotoxicity of artemisinin derivatives based on primary neuronal brain stem cell cultures (G. Schmuck and R. K. Haynes, Neurotoxicity Res. 2:37-49, 2000). Here, we probe possible mechanisms of this brain stem-specific neurodegeneration, in which artemisinin-sensitive neuronal brain stem cell cultures are compared with nonsensitive cultures (cortical neurons, astrocytes). Effects on the cytoskeleton of brain stem cell cultures, but not that of cortical cell cultures, were visible after 7 days. However, after a recovery period of 7 days, this effect also became visible in cortical cells and more severe in brain stem cell cultures. Neurodegeneration appears to be induced by effects on intracellular targets such as the cytoskeleton, modulation of the energy status by mitochondrial or metabolic defects, oxidative stress or excitotoxic events. Artemisinin reduces intracellular ATP levels and the potential of the inner mitochondrial membrane below the cytotoxic concentration range in all three cell cultures, with these effects being most dominant in the brain stem cultures. Surprisingly, there were substantial effects on cortical neurons after 7 days and on astrocytes after 1 day. Artemisinin additionally induces oxidative stress, as observed as an increase of reactive oxygen species and of lipid peroxidation in both neuronal cell types. Interestingly, an induction of expression of AOE was only seen in astrocytes. Here, manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) expression was increased more than 3-fold and catalase expression was increased more than 1.5-fold. In brain stem neurons, MnSOD expression was dose dependently decreased. Copper-zinc superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase, two other antioxidant enzymes that were investigated, did not show any changes in their mRNA expression in all three cell types after exposure to artemisinin.

Present address: Bundesinstitut für Arzneimittel und Medizinprodukte (BfArM), 53113 Bonn, Germany.

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