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We previously found that the endogenous anticonvulsant adenosine, acting through A2A and A3 adenosine receptors (ARs), alters the stability of currents (IGABA) generated by GABAA receptors expressed in the epileptic human mesial temporal lobe (MTLE). Here we examined whether AR5 alter the stability (desensitization) of IGABA expressed in focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) and in penglioma epileptic tissues. The experiments were performed with tissues from 23 patients, using voltage-clamp recordings in Xenopus oocytes microinjected with membranes isolated from human MTLE and FCD tissues or using patch-clamp recordings of pyramidal neurons in epileptic tissue slices. On repetitive activation, the epileptic GABAA receptors revealed instability, manifested by a large IGABA rundown, which in most of the oocytes (≈70%) was obviously impaired by the new A2A antagonists ANR82, ANR94, and ANR152. In most MILE tissue-microtransplanted oocytes, a new A3 receptor antagonist (ANR235) significantly improved IGABA stability. Moreover, patch-clamped pyramidal neurons from human neocortical slices of periglioma epileptic tissues exhibited altered IGABA rundown on ANR94 treatment. Our findings indicate that antagonizing A2A and A3 receptors increases the IGABA stability in different epileptic tissues and suggest that adenosine derivatives may offer therapeutic opportunities in various forms of human epilepsy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to investigate alterations in brain morphology and a possible temporal pattern of neuroanatomical abnormalities in the gray matter (GM), white matter (WM) and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of young patients with Down syndrome (DS), high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) voxel-based morphometry (VBM) was performed on 21 children and adolescents with this chromosomal aberration and 27 age-matched participants as controls. In comparison with control subjects, children and adolescents with DS showed not only an overall smaller whole-brain volume, but also volume reductions of the GM in the cerebellum, frontal lobes, frontal region of the limbic lobe, parahippocampal gyri and hippocampi and of the WM in the cerebellum, frontal and parietal lobes, sub-lobar regions and brainstem. By contrast, volume preservation was observed in the GM of the parietal lobes, temporal lobe and sub-lobar regions and in the WM of the temporal lobe and temporal regions of the limbic lobe. A lower volume of CSF was also detected in the frontal lobes. This study is the first to use the high-resolution MRI VBM method to describe a whole-brain pattern of abnormalities in young DS patients falling within such a narrow age range and it provides new information on the neuroanatomically specific regional changes that occur during development in these patients.