Efficacy of Midazolam and Ketamine Combination Therapy over Midazolam Monotherapy against Soman Exposure in Carboxylesterase Knockout Mice
Authors: Marrero‐Rosado Brenda , de Araujo Furtado Marcio , Stone Michael , Schultz Caroline , Kundrick Erica , Walker Katie , O'Brien Sean , Lumley Lucille 
Published: June 2021

IntroductionChemical warfare nerve agents (CWNAs) inhibit acetylcholinesterase (AChE), which leads to status epilepticus (SE), spontaneous recurrent seizures (SRS) and severe neuropathology when treatment is delayed. In addition to binding to AChE, some organophosphorus (OP) CWNAs such as soman (GD) also inhibit carboxylesterase (CaE), which acts as a bioscavenger and can thus reduce the severity of the toxicity of OP agent exposure. Unlike humans, rodents have plasma CaE activity. The CaE knockout (ES1−/−) mouse specifically lacks plasma CaE and might better model human GD exposure compared to wildtype rodents. Delayed treatment of CWNA‐induced SE with midazolam leads to benzodiazepine‐refractory SE. We evaluated combination therapy of midazolam and the NMDA antagonist ketamine in male and female mice for efficacy against soman‐induced lethality, SE and epileptogenesis.MethodsMice implanted with telemetry transmitters for electroencephalography (EEG) seizure identification were exposed to 82 μg/kg GD (~4LD50) and treated with an admix (ip) of atropine sulfate (4 mg/kg) and HI‐6 (50 mg/kg) 1 min after exposure, and with midazolam (3 mg/kg; ip) alone or in combination with ketamine (30 mg/kg, ip) at 40 min after seizure onset. Mice were continuously recorded to evaluate initial seizure duration and SRS and then euthanized 2 weeks after exposure for neuropathology assessment.ResultsDelayed treatment with midazolam resulted in poor survival, was unable to rapidly terminate behavioral or EEG seizure activity and did not prevent the development of SRS or neuronal loss following GD exposure. Combination therapy of midazolam and ketamine resulted in improved outcome, including an increase in survival from 30% to 78% in female and from 57% to 77% in males compared to midazolam monotherapy. In addition, the incidence of epileptogenesis was lower in mice treated with ketamine and midazolam dual therapy compared to midazolam monotherapy.ConclusionsThis study demonstrates that delayed treatment of SE with midazolam is not fully protective against the GD‐induced epileptogenesis and neuropathology, exemplifying the need for adjunct treatment to midazolam to prevent or reduce effects of GD‐induced SE. Ketamine combination with midazolam improves outcome.Support or Funding InformationResearch was supported by the CounterACT Program, NIH OD, and the NINDS (Grant 1R21NS103820‐01 to LA Lumley‐Lange) and by DTRA‐JSTO. Erica Kundrick, Katie Walker, and Sean O'Brien were supported in part by an appointment to the Research Participation Program for the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education through an agreement between the U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.