A study in epilepsy of Biocruces Bizkaia opens new possibilities of treatment for the prevention of this neurological disease

The article by the Computational Neuroimaging Research Group of the Osakidetza Research Institute, has been published in the prestigious high-impact journal BRAIN

A research group of Computational Neuroimaging of BioCruces Bizkaia, Osakidetza Health Research Institute, led by Professor Ikerbasque Jesús Cortés, has published an article in the prestigious journal BRAIN (Oxford press, https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awad055) that opens new treatment possibilities for the prevention of this neurological disease. The study delves into the impact of blocking the neuroinflammatory response on the genesis and establishment of epileptic conditions.

Headed up by researcher Ikerbasque Paolo Bonifazi and led by Dr. Soraya Martín-Suárez of the Computational Neuroimaging group, the results indicate how the blocking of a biological pathway involved in the neuroinflammatory response (called STAT3) during the appearance of epileptic activity prevents both cell death in the neuronal circuits and the permanence of epileptic activity.

This study opens new possibilities for the prevention of epilepsy by acute treatments aimed at inhibiting the neuroinflammatory response. The research group proposes new experiments aimed at testing the effect of specific blockers of the JAK/STAT pathway in human epileptic tissues. To do this, they will use a state-of-the-art optical platform that allows observing the structure and function of the neuroglial circuits in high resolution.

 One of the most common neurological diseases

Epilepsy produces recurrent, unprovoked seizures. It is one of the most common neurological diseases in the world with a high incidence of incapacity. Epileptic seizures are an expression of dysfunction of neural circuits, occurring in a positive feedback loop of concomitant factors, including also neuroinflammatory responses. In this way, seizures generate more seizures, so blocking this loop is a key element to prevent epilepsy.

The full article is available at:

https://academic.oup.com/brain/advance-article/doi/10.1093/brain/awad055/7056474