Anticonvulsant effects of the selective melatonin receptor agonist ramelteon.

Objective: The endogenous hormone melatonin has previously been shown to exert anticonvulsant effects in a variety of experimental models. Accordingly, we asked whether ramelteon, a synthetic and selective melatonin receptor agonist, might also possess anticonvulsant and/or antiepileptogenic properties.

Methods: The effects of ramelteon (30 or 100 mg/kg intraperitoneally twice daily for 5 days) were evaluated in two animal models of epilepsy.

Effects of estrogen treatment on glutamate uptake in cultured human astrocytes derived from cortex of Alzheimer's disease patients.

Estrogen is thought to play a protective role against neurodegeneration through a variety of mechanisms including the activation of growth factors, the control of synaptic plasticity, and the reduction of response to various insults, such as iron and glutamate. Increasing evidence indicates an increased level of extracellular glutamate and a down-regulation of glutamate transporters in Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this study, we show that glutamate uptake in astrocytes derived from Alzheimer's patients is significantly lower than that from non-demented controls.