Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic data from the NEOLEV1 and NEOLEV2 studies.

Objectives: To confirm that levetiracetam (LEV) demonstrates predictable pharmacokinetics(PK) at higher doses and to study the pharmacodynamics(PD) of LEV.

Design: Pharmacokinetic data from the NEOLEV1 and NEOLEV2 trials were analysed using a non-linear mixed effects modelling approach. A post hoc analysis of the effect of LEV on seizure burden was conducted.

Levetiracetam Versus Phenobarbital for Neonatal Seizures: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background And Objectives: There are no US Food and Drug Administration-approved therapies for neonatal seizures. Phenobarbital and phenytoin frequently fail to control seizures. There are concerns about the safety of seizure medications in the developing brain.

Assessing the Feasibility of Providing a Real-Time Response to Seizures Detected With Continuous Long-Term Neonatal Electroencephalography Monitoring.

Purpose: Continuous video electroencephalography (cEEG) monitoring is the recommended gold standard of care for at-risk neonates but is not available in many Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs). To conduct a randomized treatment trial of levetiracetam for the first-line treatment of neonatal seizures (the NEOLEV2 trial), we developed a monitoring infrastructure at five NICUs, implementing recent technological advancements to provide continuous video EEG monitoring and real-time response to seizure detection. Here, we report on the feasibility of providing this level of care.

Paroxysmal motor disorders: expanding phenotypes lead to coalescing genotypes.

Paroxysmal movement disorders encompass varied motor phenomena. Less recognized features and wide phenotypic and genotypic heterogeneity are impediments to straightforward molecular diagnosis. We describe a family with episodic ataxia type 1, initially mis-characterized as paroxysmal dystonia to illustrate this diagnostic challenge.

Low-dose suramin in autism spectrum disorder: a small, phase I/II, randomized clinical trial.

Objective: No drug is yet approved to treat the core symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Low-dose suramin was effective in the maternal immune activation and Fragile X mouse models of ASD. The Suramin Autism Treatment-1 (SAT-1) trial was a double-blind, placebo-controlled, translational pilot study to examine the safety and activity of low-dose suramin in children with ASD.

Frequency and Complexity of De Novo Structural Mutation in Autism.

Genetic studies of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have established that de novo duplications and deletions contribute to risk. However, ascertainment of structural variants (SVs) has been restricted by the coarse resolution of current approaches. By applying a custom pipeline for SV discovery, genotyping, and de novo assembly to genome sequencing of 235 subjects (71 affected individuals, 26 healthy siblings, and their parents), we compiled an atlas of 29,719 SV loci (5,213/genome), comprising 11 different classes.

A clinical trial of safety and tolerability for the selective dopamine D1 receptor antagonist ecopipam in patients with Lesch-Nyhan disease.

Lesch-Nyhan disease (LND) is an inherited metabolic disorder characterized by the overproduction of uric acid and distinct behavioral, cognitive, and motor abnormalities. The most challenging clinical problem is self-injurious behavior (SIB), which includes self-biting, self-hitting, self-abrasion, and other features. Currently, these behaviors are managed by behavioral extinction, sedatives, physical restraints, and removal of teeth.

Assessing bioenergetic compromise in autism spectrum disorder with 31P magnetic resonance spectroscopy: preliminary report.

We sought to examine, via Phosphorus-31 magnetic resonance spectroscopy ((31)P-MRS) in a case-control design, whether bioenergetic deficits in autism spectrum disorders extend to the brain and muscle. Six cases with autism spectrum disorder with suspected mitochondrial dysfunction (age 6-18 years) and 6 age/sex-matched controls underwent (31)P magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The outcomes of focus were muscle resting phosphocreatine and intracellular pH as well as postexercise phosphocreatine recovery time constant and frontal brain phosphocreatine.

Primary respiratory chain disease causes tissue-specific dysregulation of the global transcriptome and nutrient-sensing signaling network.

Primary mitochondrial respiratory chain (RC) diseases are heterogeneous in etiology and manifestations but collectively impair cellular energy metabolism. Mechanism(s) by which RC dysfunction causes global cellular sequelae are poorly understood. To identify a common cellular response to RC disease, integrated gene, pathway, and systems biology analyses were performed in human primary RC disease skeletal muscle and fibroblast transcriptomes.

Mitochondrial and ion channel gene alterations in autism.

To evaluate the potential importance in autistic subjects of copy number variants (CNVs) that alter genes of relevance to bioenergetics, ionic metabolism, and synaptic function, we conducted a detailed microarray analysis of 69 autism probands and 35 parents, compared to 89 CEU HapMap controls. This revealed that the frequency CNVs of≥100kb and CNVs of≥10 Kb were markedly increased in probands over parents and in probands and parents over controls. Evaluation of CNVs≥1Mb by chromosomal FISH confirmed the molecular identity of a subset of the CNVs, some of which were associated with chromosomal rearrangements.