A screen done in two different seizure zebrafish models reveals compound which can potentially treat drug resistant epilepsy.
Barcelona March, 16th
By Marina Müller
As many may know, 30% of epilepsy patients still do not have effective medications available, as the medications on the market are not suitable for all epilepsy cases. These phenomena are called “drug-resistant epilepsy” and affect both pediatric as well as adult epilepsy. This is especially serious taking into account that epilepsy is one of the most common neurological diseases worldwide, as 50 million people are estimated to be affected.
In order to find new medicines which may help these patients, a team from the KU Leuven led by Peter de Witte screened several extracts from plants used in traditional Chinese medicine in two types of zebrafish with epileptic-like seizures: one of which could respond to conventional anti-seizure medications, whereas the other type could not. These zebrafish models used where the pentylenetetrazole (PTZ) behavioral zebrafish model and the ethylketopentenoate (EKP) zebrafish model.
Interestingly, results show that the extracts from the bark of Magnolia officinalis reduced the seizure-like behavior in both types of Zebrafish epilepsy models. The researchers then tested the magnolia compound in mice and found that the compound magnolol also reduced the seizures of the 6 Hz psychomotor mouse model, an otherwise drug-resistant seizures model. Thanks to this discovery, new medicines for drug-resistant epilepsy based on the extract may soon get into the trial, giving hope to millions of drug-resistant epilepsy patients.
From ZeClinics, we want to give our sincere congratulations to the team at the KU Leuven for the incredible results!
View full article ACS Publications