Institution: University of California, Los Angeles
Overview:
The mechanisms underlying epileptogenesis are not yet well understood, thus, a novel multimodal approach to study the process from inception to manifest clinical epilepsy is needed. Post-traumatic epilepsy (PTE) is an important public health problem that accounts for 5% of all epilepsy; in this type of epilepsy, the timing of the potential epileptogenic insult is known, and the period of epileptogenesis can be determined. Epileptogenesis is common after moderate-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) and begins early, offering a window of opportunity to test the efficacy of potential antiepileptogenic (AEG) drugs. The Epilepsy Bioinformatics Study for Antiepileptogenic Therapy (EpiBioS4Rx) is a project designed to facilitate the development of AEG therapies by removing barriers and promoting large-scale collaborative research efforts by multidisciplinary teams of basic and clinical neuroscientists with access to extensive patient populations, well-defined and rigidly standardized animal models, and cutting-edge analytic methodology. Epileptogenesis after TBI can be prevented with specific treatments; the identification of relevant biomarkers and performance of rigorous preclinical trials will permit the future design and performance of economically feasible full-scale clinical trials of AEG therapies.