Clue to Cause of Epileptic Seizures Discovered

Nov. 24 (HealthDay News) -- The interaction between white blood cells of the immune system and blood vessels may contribute to epileptic seizures, new research suggests. If this turns out to be the case, such interactions may be a target for new treatments or even preventive measures for epilepsy.
Epilepsy remains a considerable medical mystery, and an outside expert said this revelation could be a productive avenue to pursue, or perhaps not.
Recent research has suggested that activation of the immune system in the brain, and the resulting inflammation processes, may play a role in epilepsy. In mice, seizures caused "adhesion" molecules in blood vessels in the brain to attach to white blood cells known as leukocytes. Interrupting this interaction reduced seizures. Seizures also broke down the blood-brain barrier, which works to keep various molecules out of the brain. When investigators interfered with the leukocyte-blood vessel binding, the blood-brain "leak" was plugged. Also, there were more leukocytes present in the brains of people with epilepsy, when compared with healthy individuals. As always with animal models, there is a question about how well the findings extend to apply to humans.

Source: Healthday News: Robert A. Gross, M.D., Ph.D., director, Strong Epilepsy Center, and professor, neurology and pharmacology and physiology, University of Rochester Medical Center, N.Y.; Nov. 23, 2009, Nature Medicine, online