Search for lithium isotope effects in neuronal HT22 cells

James D Livingstone; Michel J P Gingras; Zoya Leonenko; Michael A Beazely

doi:10.1016/j.bbrep.2023.101461

Search for lithium isotope effects in neuronal HT22 cells

Biochem Biophys Rep. 2023 Mar 31:34:101461. doi: 10.1016/j.bbrep.2023.101461. eCollection 2023 Jul.

Authors

James D Livingstone¹, Michel J P Gingras², Zoya Leonenko^{2

3}, Michael A Beazely¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Pharmacy, University of Waterloo, Kitchener, Ontario, N2G 1C5, Canada.
² Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1, Canada.
³ Department of Biology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1, Canada.

Abstract

Lithium has been used as a treatment for bipolar disorder for over half a century, but there has thus far been no clinical differentiation made between the two naturally occurring stable isotopes (⁶Li and ⁷Li). While the natural lithium salts commonly used in treatments are composed of a mixture of these two stable isotopes (approximately 7.59% ⁶Li and 92.41% ⁷Li), some preliminary research indicates the above two stable isotopes of lithium may have differential effects on rat behaviour and neurophysiology. Here, we evaluate whether lithium isotopes may have distinct effects on HT22 neuronal cell viability, GSK-3-β phosphorylation in HT22 cells, and GSK-3-β kinase activity. We report no significant difference in lithium isotope toxicity on HT22 cells, nor in GSK-3-β phosphorylation, nor in GSK-3-β kinase activity between the two isotopes of lithium.

Keywords: 6Li; 7Li; GSK-3-β; HT22; Lithium isotopes; Neuronal cells; Quantum mechanisms.