Consequences of acute Na v 1.1 exposure to deltamethrin.

BACKGROUND: Pyrethroid insecticides are the most popular class of insecticides in the world, despite their near-ubiquity, their effects of delaying the onset of inactivation of voltage-gated sodium (Nav ) channels have not been well-evaluated in all the mammalian Nav isoforms.

OBJECTIVE: Here we compare the well-studied Nav 1.6 isoforms to the less-understood Nav 1.1 in their responses to acute deltamethrin exposure.

METHODS: We used patch-clamp electrophysiology to record sodium currents encoded by either Nav 1.1 or Nav 1.6 channels stably expressed in HEK293 cells. Protocols evaluating both resting and use-dependent modification were employed.

RESULTS: We found that exposure of both isoforms to 10μM deltamethrin significantly potentiated persistent and tail current densities without affecting peak transient current densities, and only Nav 1.1 maintained these significant effects at 1μM deltamethrin. Window currents increased for both as well, and while only Nav 1.6 displayed changes in activation slope and V1/2 of steady-state inactivation for peak currents, V1/2 of persistent current activation was hyperpolarized of ∼10mV by deltamethrin in Nav 1.1 cells. Evaluating use-dependence, we found that deltamethrin again potentiated persistent and tail current densities in both isoforms, but only Nav 1.6 demonstrated use-dependent enhancement, indicating the primary deltamethrin-induced effects on Nav 1.1 channels are not use-dependent.

CONCLUSION: Collectively, these data provide evidence that Nav 1.1 is indeed vulnerable to deltamethrin modification at lower concentrations than Nav 1.6, and this effect is primarily mediated during the resting state.

GENERAL SIGNIFICANCE: These findings identify Nav 1.1 as a novel target of pyrethroid exposure, which has major implications for the etiology of neuropsychiatric disorders associated with loss of Nav 1.1-expressing inhibitory neurons.