A STUDY OF POSSIBLE PROTECTION BY NEFIRACETAM ON ESLICARBAZEPINE INDUCED MEMORY IMPAIRMENT IN TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSY

Memory impairment (MI) is commonly seen in epilepsy and is at times aggravated by antiepileptic therapy. Recent studies reported that co-administration of nootropic agent with an antiepileptic drug (AED) might decrease the MI. This study was designed to evaluate MI activity of Eslicarbazepine (ESL) in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and to assess the protective effect of Nefiracetam (NEF) which is a racetam group nootropic. MI activity was evaluated by radial arm maze (RAM) on lithium-pilocarpine induced TLE in Wistar Albino Rats. Antiepileptic activity of ESL was also assessed in the absence and presence of NEF. ESL treated a group of animals had increased errors in RAM, compared to the control group which indicated the presence of MI. The extent of MI was decreased when given a half dose of ESL. ESL aggravated the MI in epileptic rats which was very much similar to phenytoin, a standard more than the control group. Co-administration of NEF reversed the MI induced by ESL significantly. It was also observed that NEF treated animals have shown activity as that of the normal group of animals, demonstrating that NEF ameliorates MI in TLE. The anticonvulsant activity was found to be synergized due to the co-administration of NEF when compared to control, and ESL alone treated animals. The combination of a reduced dose of ESL and Nefiracetam was very potent compared to ESL and Phenytoin alone. The reduced dose of ESL and NEF showed a very synergistic effect as nootropic without altering the Anti-epileptic activity.