NYMC Faculty Publications

DOI

10.3389/fncel.2018.00167

Journal Title

Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience

First Page

167

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-1-2018

Department

Cell Biology and Anatomy

Abstract

Epilepsy is a severe neurological disease affecting more than 70 million people worldwide that is characterized by unpredictable and abnormal electrical discharges resulting in recurrent seizures. Although antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) are the mainstay of epilepsy treatment for seizure control, about one third of patients with epilepsy suffer from intractable seizures that are unresponsive to AEDs. Furthermore, the patients that respond to AEDs typically experience adverse systemic side effects, underscoring the urgent need to develop new therapies that target epileptic foci rather than more systemic interventions. Neurosurgical removal of affected brain tissues or implanting neurostimulator devices are effective options only for a fraction of patients with drug-refractory seizures, so it is imperative to develop treatments that are more generally applicable and restorative in nature. Considering the abnormalities of GABAergic inhibitory interneurons in epileptic brain tissues, one strategy with considerable promise is to restore normal circuit function by transplanting GABAergic interneurons/progenitors into the seizure focus. In this review, we focus on recent studies of cortical GABAergic interneuron transplantation to treat epilepsy and discuss critical issues in moving this promising experimental therapeutic treatment into clinic.

Publisher's Statement

Originally published in Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience, 12, Article 167. The original material can be found here.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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