Seizure-sensitivity in Drosophila is ameliorated by dorsal vessel injection of the antiepileptic drug valproate.

Drosophila is a powerful model organism that can be used for the development of new drugs directed against human disease. A limitation is the ability to deliver drugs for testing. We report on a novel delivery system for treating Drosophila neurological mutants, direct injection into the circulatory system. Using this method, we show that injection of the antiepileptic drug valproate can ameliorate seizure-sensitive phenotypes in several mutant genotypes in the bang-sensitive (BS) paralytic mutant class, sda, eas, and para(bss1). This drug-injection method is superior to drug-feeding methods that we have employed previously, presumably because it bypasses potent detoxification systems present in the fly. In addition, we find that utilizing blood-brain barrier mutations in the background may further improve the injection results under certain circumstances. We propose that this method of drug delivery is especially effective when using Drosophila to model human pathologies, especially neurological syndromes.