Breakthrough in epilepsy research

EPILEPSY is the most common neurological disease in the world. But it is far more common in developing countries of the global south, especially in Africa because of the region’s higher rates of brain trauma and brain infections. The latter are the main causes of status epilepticus (an epileptic seizure which lasts more than five minutes, or more than one seizure within five minutes).

A new paper by UCT researchers and their international co-authors has explained why patients experiencing unrelenting epileptic seizures stop responding to first-line medication, benzodiazepines.

Epileptic seizures are caused by “electrical storms” or bursts of electrical activity in the brain.

“As benzodiazepines work in less than 50% of cases, it means we really should think about other strategies to stop these seizures,” said corresponding author from UCT, Dr Joseph Raimondo.

The breakthrough discovery is expected to improve the management of this condition in clinical settings and point the way ahead in terms of new therapies. For example, the study showed that a different drug, phenobarbital, is very effective. Currently, however, the drug is hard to come by as it is not profitable for drug companies.

The research underpinning the paper was done in collaboration with Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital head of paediatric neurology Professor Jo Wilmshurst.

Former UCT Master’s student and lead author Richard Burman, split his time between the hospital’s emergency room and Raimondo’s laboratory. The next step was to begin thinking about different clinical approaches and strategies for treating unrelenting epileptic seizures, Raimondo said. |