Blocking GluN2B subunits reverses the enhanced seizure susceptibility after prolonged febrile seizures with a wide therapeutic time-window

Febrile seizures (FSs), the most common type of convulsive events in infants, are closely associated with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) in adulthood. It is urgent to investigate how FSs promote epileptogenesis and find the potential therapeutic targets. In the present study, we showed that the phosphorylation of GluN2B Tyr1472 gradually reached peak level at 24 h after prolonged FSs and remained elevated during 7 days thereafter. IL-1β treatment alone, which in previous study mimicked the effect of prolonged FSs on adult seizure susceptibility, increased GluN2B Tyr1472 phosphorylation. Both IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra) and IL-1R1 deletion were sufficient to reverse the prolonged FSs induced hyper-phosphorylation of GluN2B Tyr1472. GluN2B antagonist ifenprodil showed a wide therapeutic time-window (3 days) to reverse the enhanced seizure susceptibility after prolonged FSs or IL-1β treatment. Our study demonstrated that GluN2B phosphorylation at Tyr1472 site mediated by the transient increase of IL-1β was involved in the enhanced adult seizure susceptibility after prolonged FSs, implicating GluN2B-containing NMDAR is a new potential drug target with a wide therapeutic time window to prevent epileptogenesis in patients with infantile FSs.