Figure 2.

Inhibition of ACE by carbamazepine. (a) Inhibitory profile of different drugs used in the treatment of epilepsy. Carbamazepine was the only antiepileptic drug able to inhibit plasmatic ACE activity. (b) Enzymatic activity of purified ACE. Mean (±s.e.m.) (^*P<0.05, ^***P<0.001). As a non-specificity control, carbamazepine had no inhibitory effect on either human plasmatic or purified kallikrein (Supplementary Figure 2). (c) HPLC assay demonstrating carbamazepine inhibition of Ang I degradation by ACE (^***P< 0.001). (d) Mean (±s.e.m.) plasmatic ACE activity is decreased 60 min after carbamazepine administration by gavage (150 μg kg⁻¹) in mice (^**P<0.01). (e) Mean (±s.e.m.) plasmatic ACE activity of TLE patients treated with carbamazepine (n=35) resembles that of the control group (n=55), whereas non-carbamazepine-treated TLE patients (n=15) have significantly higher ACE activities (^*P<0.05).