Treatment Of Epilepsy With A Catalytic Antioxidant

The vast majority of epilepsy research is focused on channels and synapses and only a minority focuses on metabolic processes. Although anticonvulsant drugs remain frontline therapies for controlling epilepsies, the search for novel disease-modifying drugs is highly desirable to halt the devastating effects of chronic seizures. Catalytic antioxidants are small molecule mimics of the body’s own defenses that can efficiently remove reactive oxygen species and in the process, regenerate themselves. The goal of this project is to conduct a proof-of-principle study to determine if early treatment with a novel catalytic antioxidant prevents metabolic dysfunction and epilepsy in mice lacking a critical mitochondrial antioxidant.