Anti-epileptic effect of ifenprodil on neocortical pyramidal neurons in patients with malformations of cortical development

Ifenprodil has been demonstrated to reduce spontaneous action potentials observed by local field potential in animal models. To investigate whether ifenprodil exerts an anti-epileptic effect on neuronal levels in humans, whole-cell patch clamp recordings were used to study the electrophysiological membrane properties of neocortical pyramidal neurons in human brain tissues. Electrophysiological membrane properties and spontaneous spikes of neocortical pyramidal neurons were investigated by using whole-cell patch clamp recordings, prior to and following the application of ifenprodil. In the present study, ifenprodil significantly decreased the membrane input resistance (P<0.01), membrane time constant (P<0.01), action potential amplitude (P<0.01), action potential rising rate (P<0.05) and falling rate (P<0.05) on neocortical pyramidal neurons in patients with epilepsy caused by malformations of cortical development (MCD). These results suggested that ifenprodil decreased neuronal excitability of neocortical pyramidal neurons in patients with epilepsy and MCD and demonstrated that ifenprodil may be a potentially specific treatment for refractory epilepsy caused by MCD.