Neurotoxicity induced by continuous infusion of quinolinic acid into the lateral ventricle in rats.

Acute intrastriatal injection of quinolinic acid (QA) caused a significant reduction of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) and glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) activities as well as a decrease of the specific binding of [3H]hemicholinium-3. Pretreatment with MK-801 completely blocked the QA-induced neurotoxicity. Continuous infusion of QA into the lateral ventricle resulted in a reduction of hippocampal and cortical ChAT activities while GAD activities were unchanged. These results suggest that continuous infusion of QA into the lateral ventricle could be a useful technique for the study of chronic neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease.