We have been posting about using Zebrafish to model epilepsy treatment since 2013, and about the potential for treatments to be developed from these models. Fast forward to 2017, and we have a viable treatment in clinical trials!
Via News Medical:
New drug discovered in zebrafish model of pediatric epilepsy shows promising results in clinical study
“Bench-to-bedside” describes research t
hat has progressed from basic science in animal models that has led to therapies used in patients. Now, a study in the journal Brain describes what could be considered a direct “aquarium-to-bedside” approach, taking a drug discovered in a genetic zebrafish model of epilepsy and testing it, with promising results, in a small number of children with the disease. The study was supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), part of the National Institutes of Health.
“This is the first time that scientists have taken a potential therapy discovered in a fish model directly into people in a clinical trial,” said Vicky Whittemore, Ph.D., program director at the NINDS. “These findings suggest that it may be possible to treat neurological disorders caused by genetic mutations through an efficient and precision medicine-style approach.”
Scott C. Baraban, Ph.D., the William K. Bowes Jr. Endowed Chair in Neuroscience Research and professor of neurological surgery at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), postdoctoral fellow Aliesha Griffin, Ph.D., and colleagues used a zebrafish model of Dravet syndrome to test the drug lorcaserin and found that it suppressed seizure activity in the fish. Dravet syndrome is a severe form of pediatric epilepsy characterized by frequent daily drug-resistant seizures and developmental delays. It is caused by a genetic mutation, which Dr. Baraban’s group was able to introduce into the zebrafish to cause epilepsy.
