Prediction of drug-induced convulsion by using heart rate variability in monkeys

Abstract

Convulsion causes significant impact on drug development but there is no good biomarker. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential of heart rate variability (HRV) as novel biomarker for drug-induced convulsion in monkeys. Telemetry-implanted monkeys were dosed with convulsants, and HRV was analyzed for 3 hours after dosing by multivariate statistical process management. As a result, frequency and duration of alarms were tended to be increased by picrotoxin and penthylentetrazole. It suggests HRV is useful for predicting drug-induced convulsions in monkeys.