Retigabine, a potassium channel opener, restores thalamocortical neuron functionality in a murine model of autoimmune encephalomyelitis

•Induction of a cortical inflammatory lesion affects the excitability of ipsilateral thalamic neurons in the EAE model of MS.•Kv7.3 channels regulate the firing pattern of thalamic neurons and are crucial for auditory-stimulus discrimination.•RTG treatment rescues inflammation-induced hyperexcitability of vMGN neurons and preserves auditory information processing. Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune neurodegenerative disease, whose primary hallmark is the occurrence of inflammatory lesions in white and grey matter structures. Increasing evidence in MS patients and respective murine models reported an impaired ionic homeostasis driven by inflammatory-demyelination, thereby profoundly affecting signal propagation. However, the impact of a focal inflammatory lesion on single-cell and network functionality has hitherto not been fully elucidated. In this study, we sought to determine the consequences of a localized cortical inflammatory lesion on the excitability and firing pattern of thalamic neurons in the auditory system. Moreover, we tested the neuroprotective effect of Retigabine (RTG), a specific Kv7 channel opener, on disease outcome. To resemble the human disease, we focally administered pro-inflammatory cytokines, TNF-α and IFN-γ, in the primary auditory cortex (A1) of MOG35-55 immunized mice. Thereafter, we investigated the impact of the induced inflammatory milieu on afferent thalamocortical (TC) neurons, by performing ex vivo recordings. Moreover, we explored the effect of Kv7 channel modulation with RTG on auditory information processing, using in vivo electrophysiological approaches. Our results revealed that a cortical inflammatory lesion profoundly affected the excitability and firing pattern of neighboring TC neurons. Noteworthy, RTG restored control-like values and TC tonotopic mapping. Our results suggest that RTG treatment might robustly mitigate inflammation-induced altered excitability and preserve ascending information processing.