Ceftriaxone reduces L‐dopa–induced dyskinesia severity in 6‐hydroxydopamine parkinson's disease model

ABSTRACT Background: Increased extracellular glutamate may contribute to l ‐dopa induced dyskinesia, a debilitating side effect faced by Parkinson's disease patients 5 to 10 years after l ‐dopa treatment. Therapeutic strategies targeting postsynaptic glutamate receptors to mitigate dyskinesia may have limited success because of significant side effects. Increasing glutamate uptake may be another approach to attenuate excess glutamatergic neurotransmission to mitigate dyskinesia severity or prolong the time prior to onset. Initiation of a ceftriaxone regimen at the time of nigrostriatal lesion can attenuate tyrosine hydroxylase loss in conjunction with increased glutamate uptake and glutamate transporter GLT‐1 expression in a rat 6‐hydroxydopamine model. In this article, we examined if a ceftriaxone regimen initiated 1 week after nigrostriatal lesion, but prior to l ‐dopa, could reduce l ‐dopa–induced dyskinesia in an established dyskinesia model. Methods: Ceftriaxone (200 mg/kg, intraperitoneal, once daily, 7 consecutive days) was initiated 7 days post‐6‐hydroxydopamine lesion (days 7‐13) and continued every other week (days 21‐27, 35‐39) until the end of the study (day 39 postlesion, 20 days of l ‐dopa). Results: Ceftriaxone significantly reduced abnormal involuntary movements at 5 time points examined during chronic l ‐dopa treatment. Partial recovery of motor impairment from nigrostriatal lesion by l ‐dopa was unaffected by ceftriaxone. The ceftriaxone‐treated l ‐dopa group had significantly increased striatal GLT‐1 expression and glutamate uptake. Striatal tyrosine hydroxylase loss in this group was not significantly different when compared with the l ‐dopa alone group. Conclusions: Initiation of ceftriaxone after nigrostriatal lesion, but prior to and during l ‐dopa, may reduce dyskinesia severity without affecting l ‐dopa efficacy or the reduction of striatal tyrosine hydroxylase loss. © 2017 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society