Hatice Aygün
Archives of Epilepsy - 2025;31(4):121-126
Objective: Epilepsy is the most common chronic brain disease that affects millions of people worldwide. In the present study, we investigated the effects of dapagliflozin, a sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitor, which has been recently introduced as a new drug for diabetes mellitus, on seizure activity in Wistar Albino Glaxo from Rijswijk (WAG/Rij) rats with genetic absence epilepsy. Methods: Twenty-eight adult male WAG/Rij rats were divided into the following groups: Group 1, control; Group 2, dapagliflozin (1 mg/kg); Group 3, dapagliflozin (5 mg/kg); Group 4, dapagliflozin (25 mg/kg). The tripolar electrodes were placed while the patient was under general anesthesia. After a recovery period, three hours of basal electrocorticography (ECoG) recording was taken. Following the basal ECoG recording, dapagliflozin at doses of 1, 5, and 25 mg/ kg was injected intraperitoneally. After the dapagliflozin injections, researchers recorded ECoG for another three hours. In the recordings, the total number and duration of spike-and-wave discharges (SWDs), and average SWD amplitudes were used to evaluate seizures. Results: Compared to the control group, the administration of 1 mg dapagliflozin significantly decreased the number and duration of SWDs. Both parameters of SWD increased significantly in the 25 mg dapagliflozin group. The number and duration of SWDs did not change significantly between 5 mg dapagliflozin and the control groups. There were no significant changes in the average SWD amplitude values of all groups. Conclusion: The results of the present study provided electrophysiological evidence regarding the role of SGLT2 inhibitors in the modulation of genetic absence epilepsy seizures.
