Can glial cells save neurons in epilepsy?

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder caused by the pathological hyper-synchronization of neuronal discharges. The fundamental research of epilepsy mechanisms and the targets of drug design options for its treatment have focused on neurons. However, approximately 30% of patients suffering from epilepsy show resistance to standard anti-epileptic chemotherapeutic agents while the symptoms of the remaining 70% of patients can be alleviated but not completely removed by the current medications.

Therapeutic Potential of Astrocyte Purinergic Signalling in Epilepsy and Multiple Sclerosis.

Epilepsy and multiple sclerosis (MS), two of the most common neurological diseases, are characterized by the establishment of inflammatory environment in the central nervous system that drives disease progression and impacts on neurodegeneration. Current therapeutic approaches in the treatments of epilepsy and MS are targeting neuronal activity and immune cell response, respectively. However, the lack of fully efficient responses to the available treatments obviously shows the need to search for novel therapeutic candidates that will not exclusively target neurons or immune cells.

Early Chronic Carbamazepine-in-Food Administration to MAM/Pilocarpine Rats Does Not Affect Convulsive Motor Seizures.

Antiepileptic drug-resistance is a major health problem in patients with cortical dysplasia (CD). Whether drug-resistant epilepsy is associated with progressive brain damage is still debated. We previously generated a rat model of acquired CD, the methylazoxymethanol-pilocarpine (MP) rat, in which the occurrence of status epilepticus and subsequent spontaneous seizures induce progressive brain damage (Nobili et al.

Role of astrocyte purinergic signaling in epilepsy.

Epilepsy is characterized by unpredictable recurrent seizures resulting from hypersynchronous discharges from neuron assemblies. Increasing evidence indicates that aberrant astrocyte signaling to neurons plays an important role in driving the network hyperexcitability. Purinergic signaling is central in neuron-glia and glia-glia interactions and dysfunctions in communication pathways involving purinergic receptors have been reported in various CNS pathologies, such as Alzheimer disease, stroke, major depression, schizophrenia, and epilepsy.

Targeting PSD95-nNOS interaction by Tat-N-dimer peptide during status epilepticus is neuroprotective in MAM-pilocarpine rat model.

Glutamate receptors play a crucial pathogenic role in brain damage induced by status epilepticus (SE). SE may initiate NMDAR-dependent excitotoxicity through the production of oxidative damage mediated by the activation of a ternary complex formed by the NMDA receptor, the post-synaptic density scaffolding protein 95 (PSD95) and the neuronal NO synthase (nNOS). The inhibition of the protein-protein-interaction (PPI) of the NMDAR-PSD95-nNOS complex is one of the most intriguing challenges recently developed to reduce neuronal death in both animal models and in patients with cerebral ischemia.