Experimental compounds reduced not only seizures in mice, but protected parts of the brain damaged by them, helping to slow or stop progression of epilepsy, according to a recently published study. Photo by xpixel/Shutterstock

NEW ORLEANS, July 22 (UPI) -- While most epilepsy treatments lessen the occurrence of seizures, preventing changes in the brain that cause the disorder could have a far greater positive impact on patients, researchers say.

Neuroprotective compounds created by researchers at Louisiana State University and the University of Alcala protected parts of the brain causing seizures and other epilepsy-linked behaviors in experiments with mice, suggesting progression of the disorder can be prevented.


Epilepsy is caused by disruption of nerve cell activity in the brain causing seizures. During seizures, structures in the brain called dendritic spines, which allow brain cells to communicate, are damaged.

Often, dendritic spines reconnect incorrectly, causing abnormal brain activity that leads to seizures ranging from behavioral and emotional problems to the more commonly known muscle spasms and convulsions of severe seizures.

A drug that protects dendritic spines could help prevent the seizures, and as a result the incorrect rewiring that leads to more and worse seizures, researchers in recent tests of the drugs say.

"Most of the anti-epileptic drugs currently available treat the symptom -- seizures -- not the disease itself," Dr. Nicolas Bazan, director of the LSU Health New Orleans Neuroscience Center of Excellence, said in a press release. "Understanding the potential therapeutic usefulness of compounds that may interrupt the development process may pave the way for disease-modifying treatments for patients at risk for epilepsy."

For the study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers tested compounds to block neuroinflammatory signaling receptors in the brains of mice expected to protect dendritic spines, thus reducing the chance for seizures and other epilepsy-related behaviors.

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Mice treated with the compounds had less aberrant connectivity, fewer seizures and reduced onset of epilepsy. The researchers say a more detailed understanding of the condition's development and worsening will help fine-tune changes in the brain they are trying to prevent.

"Future clinical studies would evaluate the potential application of the compounds that we have developed and/or the mechanisms that we have discovered that are targeted by these compounds in the development of epilepsy," Bazan said.