Drug-resistant epilepsy: Drug target hypothesis and beyond the receptors.

Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disorder that affects more than 50 million people worldwide. Despite a recent introduction of antiseizure drugs for the treatment of epileptic seizures, one-third of these patients suffer from drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE). The therapeutic target hypothesis is a cited theory to explain DRE.

Cannabidiol modifies the seizure expression and effects of antiseizure drugs in a rat model of recurrent severe seizures.

Purpose: To evaluate the effects of cannabidiol alone or in combination with antiseizure drugs in the expression of recurrent generalized seizures in a rat model.

Methods: Group A: Male Wistar rats received 3-mercaptopropionic acid (MP) every 12 h for 5 days to induce recurrent generalized seizures. Thereafter, the animals were submitted to a crossover protocol to receive different treatments with cannabidiol, phenytoin and phenobarbital, alone and in combination.

Is cannabidiol a drug acting on unconventional targets to control drug-resistant epilepsy?

Cannabis has been considered as a therapeutic strategy to control intractable epilepsy. Several cannabis components, especially cannabidiol (CBD), induce antiseizure effects. However, additional information is necessary to identify the types of epilepsies that can be controlled by these components and the mechanisms involved in these effects.

[Castleman disease. Histopathological and immunohistochemical analysis of 39 cases].

Introduction: Castleman disease (CD) is a rare lymphoproliferative that comprises two distinct clinical subtypes (unicentric and multicentric) and has two basic histopathology patterns that are hyaline-vascular (HV) and plasma-cell (PC) type. Some cases of multicentric PC disease are associated with HHV-8 infection.

Objective: To present the histopathologic and immunohistochemical characteristics of 39 cases of CD.

Dopamine abnormalities in the neocortex of patients with temporal lobe epilepsy.

Experiments were designed to evaluate different variables of the dopaminergic system in the temporal cortex of surgically treated patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) associated with mesial sclerosis (MTLE, n=12) or with cerebral tumor or lesion (n=8). In addition, we sought to identify dopaminergic abnormalities in those patients with epilepsy that had comorbid anxiety and depression. Specifically, we investigated changes in dopamine and its metabolites, D1 and D2 receptors, tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and dopamine transporter.