Effects of levetiracetam and nefirasetam on the NB2A cell culture line

The aim of this project is to investigate possible neurotoxic or neuroprotective effects of two antiepileptic drugs levetiracetam and nefiracetam, members of racetam group, on mouse neuroblastoma cancer cell lines (NB2a). Physicians diagnose neurodegenerative diseases more often in recent years, mainly due to the increase in the number of elderly people. Treatments of these diseases are usually symptomatic and diseases usually progress. Therefore, new medications are required. Among the rasetam group, levetiracetam and nefiracetam are newly-developed drugs that can be used for this purpose. Levetiracetam and nefiracetam have been reported to be neuroprotective by some researchers while others argued that they may have slight neurotoxic effects. In the present study, we examined whether these drugs have neurotoxic effects using neuroblastoma cell line of mouse origin (NB2a). For this aim, the toxic effects and apoptotic effects of the drugs have been tested by Neurotoxicity Screening Test (NST) and TUNEL method and MTT cell viability test, respectively. There were no moderate neurotoxic effects on NTT test. İn NB2a cell culture neurotoxicity was induced by chlorpyrifos which has neurotoxic properties and neuroprotective effects of levetiracetam and nefiracetam was observed at high concentrations. This protective effect may provide help patients with neurodegenerative problems or those who are exposed to organophosphate toxicity. By this way neurodegenerative diseases, which is a significant health issue can be eliminated.