Monoterpene α-thujone exerts a differential inhibitory action on GABAA receptors implicated in phasic and tonic GABAergic inhibition

A monoterpene ketone, α-thujone originally attracted attention as a major natural ingredient of absinthe and was suspected to cause adverse effects such as hallucinations and seizures in persons excessively consuming this beverage. Although subsequent studies ruled out any major role of α-thujone in the “absynthism”, it was found that at high doses it may induce epileptic activity pointing to an interaction with GABAergic inhibition. Indeed, subsequent studies, including those from this laboratory, showed that α-thujone inhibits GABAergic currents. However, GABAA receptors are extremely heterogeneous and in the present study we have investigated the effect of α-thujone on different recombinant GABAA receptors (α1β2γ2L, α1β2, α1β2δ and α4β2δ) relevant to phasic or tonic forms of inhibition. We report that α-thujone inhibits all considered receptor types by a qualitatively similar mechanism but the strongest effect is observed for α1β2δ receptors, suggesting that tonic currents might be more sensitive to α-thujone than the phasic ones. Moreover, we demonstrate that tonic currents, mimicked by response to a submicromollar GABA concentration (0.3 μM) in cultured neurons, showed a substantially larger sensitivity to α-thujone than responses elicited by higher [GABA] (more similar to phasic currents) or Inhibitory Postsynaptic Currents in the same preparation. Importantly, the extent of tonic current inhibition by α-thujone was as strong as in the case of currents mediated by α1β2δ receptors. Altogether, these data provide evidence that different GABAA receptor subtypes show distinct sensitivities to α-thujone and suggest that this compound may differentially affect tonic and phasic components of GABAergic inhibition.