2018 Volume 10 Issue 1 Pages 44-51
Recently, attention has been focused on the anticancer properties of an aromatic component; 6-(methylsulfinyl) hexyl isothiocyanate (6-MITC), in a typical Japanese spice, wasabi. 6-MITC shows selective sensitivity to human breast cancer and melanoma cell lines in 39 human cancer cell lines. Furthermore, 6-MITC is active against pulmonary metastasis of B16-BL6 mouse melanoma cells. In the present study, we investigated the antiepileptic effects of 6-MITC using epileptic mutant EL mice. To explore the mechanisms of antiepileptic effects of 6-MITC, we analyzed the changes in cell cycle reentry (CCR), cytokine systems, and GABAA receptor subunits during epileptogenesis in EL mice, using semi-quantitative Western blotting techniques. Our results suggest that the antiepi-leptic mechanisms of 6-MITC is related to repair of abnormal plasticity, which is supported by CCR inactivation, together with activation of endogenous cytokines as well as induction of extra-synaptic GABAA receptor subunits, both of which play antiepileptic roles.
