Mice Lead To Clues On Cause Of Epilepsy
Posted on: Monday, 24 November 2008, 11:40 CST
On Monday Italian researchers said a faulty immune reaction may be responsible for the development of epilepsy.
The researchers used mice and found that seizures are linked to brain changes, which made immune cells stick inside its blood vessels.
This helped break down a vital filter which protects the brain from harmful chemicals.
"Unsticking" these cells helped prevent the development of epilepsy in mice.
This finding could lead to preventing about 1 percent of the general population worldwide in new treatments.
"This mechanism was not previously suspected in epilepsy," said Gabriela Constantin of the University of Verona.
Epilepsy is considered to be incurable, even though there are medicines that can control seizures in most people. Seizures are caused by excessive electrical activity in the brain.
Many seizures involve loss of consciousness because of the body twitching or shaking. People who have had more than one seizure are considered to have epilepsy.
During a seizure, the research showed that the brain releases a chemical that causes white blood cells, or leukocytes, to stick to blood vessels. The immune cells protect the body from threats such as bacteria, viruses, and infections.
The scientists found that during their research, the mice would go on to develop full epilepsy, but when this stickiness chemical was blocked using antibodies, or by genetically changing the mice, the frequency of subsequent seizures was reduced.
"We found a lot of inflammation in this process in the generation of a new seizure," Constantin said.
Mice that received monoclonal antibodies to block the immune cells from sticking to blood vessels had a dramatic reduction of seizures, in some cases 100 percent, Constantin said.
She added that this was similar to Elan Corp. Pic's multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri and Genentech Inc.'s Raptiva for psoriasis.
This means these kinds of drugs might also one day be used to treat epilepsy, the findings could also lead to new anti-inflammatory treatments.
"We predict other inflammatory drugs can work and be discovered for use in humans," Constanin said. "We have preliminary data on other inflammatory mechanism."
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Image Caption: A scanning electron microscope image of normal circulating human blood. In addition to the irregularly shaped leukocytes, both red blood cells and many small disc-shaped platelets are visible. Courtesy National Cancer Institute
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Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports
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