Findings set stage for prevention of epilepsy
Yale School of Medicine researchers have shown for the first time that it
is possible to suppress the development of epilepsy in genetically predisposed
animals, a discovery that could open the door to treating epilepsy as a preventable
disease.
According to the study published this month in Epilepsia, early treatment of
epilepsy-prone rats with the anti-convulsant medication ethosuximide before
the onset of seizures led to a marked suppression of seizures both later in
life and months after treatment stopped.
“Current treatments for epilepsy may control seizures, but they do nothing
to alter the underlying disease,” says Dr. Hal Blumenfeld, associate professor
of neurology and lead author of the study. “These findings are important
because they set the stage for prevention of epilepsy in genetically susceptible
people.”
Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder that affects about 50 million people
worldwide. It is characterized by seizures — temporary loss of consciousness
or muscular control — that are precipitated by abnormal electrical overload
on neurons within the brain.
Using a combination of molecular profiling, electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings
and power spectral analysis, Blumenfeld and his colleagues demonstrated that
ethosuximide effectively blocked the expression of an epilepsy-associated maladaptive
protein within neurons of the brain and reduced the number of seizures in treated
animals.
“These findings prove that prevention of epilepsy in people is an achievable
goal,” Blumenfeld says. “Strategies for primary prevention of diseases
like epilepsy will be increasingly important as genetic prediction of these diseases
improves.”
He adds that the results must be confirmed in other animals and with other
medications before moving on to human treatment trials.
— By Jacqueline Weaver
T H I S
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