University of Iowa biologists have definitively linked the brain’s immune system to epilepsy. In a new study, the researchers lay out a chain of events that can cause seizures—the most common manifestation of epilepsy—to worsen. The sequence begins when oxidative stress in the body causes the brain’s immune system to react. That activation by the brain’s resident immune cells […]
On International Epilepsy Day, this news service outlines the latest efforts in treating epilepsy syndromes. While several therapeutics are available for treating symptoms associated with epilepsy, researchers and patients have strongly called out the need for more holistic treatments that would address the condition as a whole. Although recently approved drugs can treat seizures more […]
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that’s made in the brain and acts as a chemical messenger, communicating between nerve cells in the brain and the rest of the body. Dopamine can impact how people think and feel. While it’s most often associated with being a “feel-good” hormone, its role in functions such as movement, cognition and […]
PHILADELPHIA—A $25 million gift from an anonymous donor to Penn Medicine and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) will establish the Center for Epilepsy and Neurodevelopmental Disorders (ENDD), accelerating collaborative research in genetic therapies for neurodevelopmental disorders. This gift will bolster the efforts of an interdisciplinary group of clinicians and scientists at Penn and CHOP, led […]
There is a slight risk for seizure worsening following SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccinations, however, no poor outcomes were reported after 6 months of follow-up in people with epilepsy. Some people with epilepsy, particularly those with refractory focal epilepsy, exhibit seizure exacerbations following administration of a SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine, with the risk for worsening particularly prominent within […]
Epilepsy is one of the most prevalent chronic brain disorders, and 30 per cent of those with the most common form of it do not respond to available drugs Researchers have found a way round that using a treatment that targets a different aspect of epilepsy – inflammation in the brain. Tests on mice show […]
