Buenafe, Olivia ErinOrellana Paucar, Adriana MonserrathMaes, JanHuang, HaoYing, XuhuiDe Borggraeve, WimCrawford, Alexander D.Luyten, WalterEsguerra, Camila VicencioDe Witte, Peter A.M.2018-01-112018-01-11201319487193https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/cn400140eDanshen or Chinese red sage (Salvia miltiorrhiza, Bunge) is used by traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practitioners to treat neurological, cardiovascular, and cerebrovas- cular disorders and is included in some TCM formulations to control epileptic seizures. In this study, acetonic crude extracts of danshen inhibited pentylenetetrazol (PTZ)-induced seizure activity in zebrafish larvae. Subsequent zebrafish bioassay-guided fractio- nation of the extract resulted in the isolation of four major tanshinones, which suppressed PTZ-induced activity to varying degrees. One of the active tanshinones, tanshinone IIA, also reduced c-fos expression in the brains of PTZ-exposed zebrafish larvae. In rodent seizure models, tanshinone IIA showed anticonvulsive activity in the mouse 6-Hz psychomotor seizure test in a biphasic manner and modified seizure thresholds in a complex manner for the mouse i.v. PTZ seizure assay. Interestingly, tanshinone IIA is used as a prescription drug in China to address cerebral ischemia in patients. Here, we provide the first in vivo evidence demonstrating that tanshinone IIA has anticonvulsant properties as well.es-ESTanshinone IIASalvia miltiorrhizaZebrafish PTZ modelMouse seizure modelsPentylenetetrazolARTÍCULO10.1021/cn400140e