Epilepsy-induced brain cell damage prevented in the laboratory

[Birdbomb]

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Epilepsy-induced brain cell damage prevented in the laboratory

St. Louis, October 29, 2007 — For some epilepsy patients, the side effects of epilepsy can be as troubling as the seizures. One pressing concern is the cognitive impairment seizures often inflict, which potentially includes memory loss, slowed reactions and reduced attention spans.

Now scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have directly observed seizure-induced structural changes in brain cells in laboratory animals. They report in The Journal of Neuroscience that the insights they gained allowed them to use a drug to block those changes in the brain.

"Assuming that these structural changes are linked to cognitive impairment -- and there's a lot of data to suggest that's true – then this could provide us with a path to therapies that reduce cognitive problems in epilepsy," says senior author Michael Wong, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of neurology, of anatomy and neurobiology, and of pediatrics.

Approximately 1 to 2 percent of the general population suffers from some form of epilepsy. Severe or prolonged seizures can cause brain cell death, leading to anatomic damage visible on brain scans. But in some cases the cognitive impairments caused by seizures cannot be linked to discernible brain damage.

Prior studies have suggested that seizures may damage dendrites, treelike branches that extend from a nerve cell to receive signals. In studies of human tissue, researchers noted the loss of spines, small bumps on the exterior of the dendrite. Spines are known to be important for the formation of synapses, junctions where two nerve cells communicate across a small gap.

"Previous studies were helpful in suggesting that dendrite structure was being damaged, but they couldn't prove cause-and-effect and provided only limited information on the timing and mechanisms of the processes that led to damage," says Wong.

Led by postdoctoral fellows Ling-hui Zeng, M.D., Ph.D. and Lin Xu, Ph.D., a team of researcher's in Wong's laboratory applied an approach known as multiphoton imaging to track brain cell changes during seizures. They used a drug to induce seizures in mice and imaged brain cells before, during and after seizures.

"Within minutes, we found changes were happening quite rapidly in the dendrites," Wong says. "They would become swollen and the spines would disappear. After the seizure, the swelling would go down but the spines did not return. That continued to be the case for at least 24 hours."

Scientists think spines may be linked to long-term potentiation, a phenomenon that makes it easier for messages to pass between nerve cells and may be essential for the encoding of memories. This could mean loss of spines in seizures impairs learning.

When researchers probed the mechanisms behind the spine loss, they found seizures were causing the breakdown of actin, a molecule widely used in cell structures. When they gave the mice a drug, FK506, prior to inducing seizures, they were able to block that breakdown.

"To follow-up, we're going to be looking at whether we can tie these changes in dendrite structure to behavioral changes in the mice," Woo says. "We're also going to be searching for drugs that can reverse this effect after a seizure happens. We would like to avoid putting epilepsy patients on a new drug all the time and hope instead to find something that can be given immediately after a seizure to prevent cognitive impairment."


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[speber]

"We would like to avoid putting epilepsy patients on a new drug all the time and hope instead to find something that can be given immediately after a seizure to prevent cognitive impairment."

Try music\auditory stimulation!........it works!.........I'm living proof that it at the very least can leseen the severity of the post-ictal symptoms!..............NOT ANOTHER DRUG!........PLEASE!!!!!!!!!

[brain]

Their goal?

1 Drug - Once a day
No More Seizures or Minimal Seizures

(but notice they didn't say anything
about tearing up our innards?)

[speber]

[Bernard]

... For some epilepsy patients, the side effects of epilepsy can be as troubling as the seizures. One pressing concern is the cognitive impairment seizures often inflict, which potentially includes memory loss, slowed reactions and reduced attention spans.

...

"Assuming that these structural changes are linked to cognitive impairment -- and there's a lot of data to suggest that's true" ...

"Previous studies were helpful in suggesting that dendrite structure was being damaged, but they couldn't prove cause-and-effect and provided only limited information on the timing and mechanisms of the processes that led to damage," says Wong.

I read this article a couple of days before BB posted it here. I've got a few problems with it.

There are a lot of assumptions and unanswered questions surrounding this:

• Does the dendrite damage heal itself over time? It's been my observation with Stacy that all the cognitive impairments she experienced during her heaviest uncontrolled seizure period reversed themselves over time once she got the seizures under control. I mean there was a point in time where Stacy could not even remember the names of our two sons - she was a complete vegetable. She has regained most of her memory and has pretty much normal cognitive processes now.
• What role do anti-epileptic drugs play in the cognitive impairment? Are they contributing or exacerbating the conditions that lead to dendrite damage?

This article is a set up for researching yet another drug to pump into people. I'm not even close to convinced that it is necessary.

[brain]

Bernard:

Your 2 comments are profound. But that
depends on the reaction to the person to
the medication(s) that the individual is on.

However, it is still of concern, no matter
which way you butter it up; it's still going
to effect the individual to a degree, either
via the body organ(s) or to the functionality.

BUT - in the light of this; it would all depend
on how much the individual is taking (dosage)
and how sensitive the person is to that
medication. It's going to impact everyone
to a degree differently.

Just like Keppra for example: It's a wonder
drug for many and a nightmare from hell
to others.

Neuroscience still has a long ways to go, and
in a lot of ways, I feel sorry for them because
they're having to deal with the brain; and the
brain is like a snowflake - NO TWO INDIVIDUALS
ARE ALIKE!

[Bernard]

Oh, and another thing... The brain has plasticity:

Plasticity, or neuroplasticity, is the lifelong ability of the brain to reorganize neural pathways based on new experiences. As we learn, we acquire new knowledge and skills through instruction or experience. In order to learn or memorize a fact or skill, there must be persistent functional changes in the brain that represent the new knowledge. The ability of the brain to change with learning is what is known as neuroplasticity.

OchsLabs LENS and traditional EEG neurofeedback can already help people repair brain function.