epilepsy

Elevated cholesterol levels return to normal or near normal levels over time in four out of 10 children with uncontrollable epilepsy treated with the high-fat ketogenic diet, according to results reported in the Journal of Child Neurology.

Scientists have learned important details illustrating how neuronal cells in the brain communicate at a microcellular level.

Such knowledge may help in the development of drug compounds used to treat disorders caused by malfunctions in communication between brain cells, such as schizophrenia, epilepsy, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease.

Mechanical engineers have developed a laser "microscalpel" that destroys a single cell while leaving nearby cells intact, which could improve the precision of surgeries for cancer, epilepsy and other diseases.

Researchers have discovered the genetic cause of a type of childhood epilepsy called childhood absence epilepsy, which accounts for 10-12 percent of epilepsy cases in children under age 16.

The finding may explain why CAE mysteriously disappears in adulthood. In addition, the study may provide insight into developing treatments and cures for CAE and other forms of epilepsy.

(American Academy of Neurology) Young women who took the commonly used epilepsy drug phenytoin for one year showed significant bone loss compared to women taking other epilepsy drugs, according to a study published in the April 29, 2008, issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Using a rodent model of epilepsy, researchers found one of the body's own neurotransmitters released during seizures, glutamate, turns on a signaling pathway in the brain that increases production of a protein that could reduce medication entry into the brain.

Researchers say this may explain why approximately 30 percent of patients with epilepsy do not respond to antiepileptic medications.

Researchers describe a next step in this research that may mean a drug already widely used by people with diabetes could also be an effective and safe therapy for epilepsy, especially for that one third of patients who have recurrent seizures despite therapy with the best available antiepileptic drugs.

Metformine, a widely used diabetic drug, might also be an effective and safe therapy for epilepsy, researchers report.

Girls and young women with Rett syndrome are nearly four times more likely to suffer a fracture. The study also found that girls with epilepsy and more severe forms of Rett syndrome were more likely to suffer fractures.

Scientists funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council have published new research in the journal Molecular Pharmacology identifying the structure of a receptor in the brain implicated in conditions such as epilepsy and pre-menstrual tension.

The same receptor has also been reported to be highly sensitive to alcohol.