Brain's Immune Cells May Promise New Treatment for Epilepsy

Seizure-related brain injuries may be treated by a repair process in the brain that has been discovered by a study at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.

Seizures are the bursts of electrical activity in the brain, characterized by brief episodes of involuntary movement of a part of the body (partial) or the entire body (generalized) with/without loss of consciousness and control of bowel or bladder function.

‘Seizure-related brain injuries that may be treated by a repair process in the brain have been discovered. This paves the way for new promising therapies against epilepsy in near future. ’

Many anti-seizure drugs do not render treatment efficacy in approximately one-third of epilepsy patients. This requires the need for proper treatment to treat epilepsy.

Immune Response after Seizures

The study team used high-powered imaging - advanced imaging technique called two-photon microscopy to observe the action of the brain's immune cells (microglia) after seizures.

It was found that the microglia were not just involved in clearing waste and damaged material from the brain but were also involved in healing the damaged neurons after experimental seizures.

"There has been mounting generic support for the idea that microglia could be used to ameliorate seizures, but direct, visualized evidence for how they could do this has been lacking. Our results indicate that microglia may not be simply clearing debris but providing structural support for neuronal integrity that may have implications even beyond the scope of seizures and epilepsy," says researcher Ukpong B. Eyo, Ph.D., of UVA's Department of Neuroscience, the UVA Brain Institute and UVA's Center for Brain Immunology and Glia (BIG).

These new insights on the brain's immune response pave the way for new promising therapies against epilepsy in near future. However the detailed mechanism is yet to be explored.

Source: Medindia