In this month’s news, we spotlight a publication describing CURE Epilepsy’s Infantile Spasms (IS) Initiative, a collaborative research program that brought a team science approach to understanding the causes and potential treatments for IS. Running from 2013-2016, this program led to numerous advances in understanding the pathways in the brain involved in IS.
Also, this month we feature news from the EPISTOP study showing that preventative treatment with the drug vigabatrin decreased the number of days with seizures as well as the severity of epilepsy in infants with tuberous sclerosis complex. We also highlight recent work from CURE Epilepsy Grantee Dr. Jeffrey Loeb, whose team identified a protein found in healthy brain tissue that may work to prevent the spread of seizures.
These studies and more are summarized below.
Research Highlights
Infantile Spasms
This recent publication highlights CURE Epilepsy’s Infantile Spasms (IS) Initiative, established in 2013 to support a collaborative, team science-based and milestone-driven effort to advance the understanding of causes of and potential treatments for IS. The combined efforts of the research team led to numerous advances in understanding the causes of IS. It also brought together a diverse group of investigators–who otherwise would not have collaborated–to study therapies for IS.
Preventing the Spread of Seizures
New research may explain what prevents seizures in certain areas of the brain from spreading to other areas of the brain. In a study funded by the National Institutes of Health/American Epilepsy Society, CURE Epilepsy Grantee Dr. Jeffrey Loeb and his colleagues found that a protein called DUSP4 was increased in healthy brain tissue directly next to epileptic brain tissue. The research suggests that DUSP4 may work to prevent the spread of epilepsy in the brain and that boosting levels of DUSP4 could be a novel way of preventing or treating epilepsy.
Tuberous Sclerosis Complex Treatment
Preventive treatment with vigabatrin effectively decreased the risk and severity of epilepsy in infants with tuberous sclerosis complex who were enrolled in the EPISTOP multi-center study. Vigabatrin resulted in a significantly longer time to first clinical seizure compared with conventional treatment as well as a lower proportion of days with seizures until age 2, according to the study findings. The “EPISTOP study has shown that it may be possible to change the natural history of severe infantile epilepsy through early intervention with antiepileptic therapy,” the researchers wrote.
Epilepsy and Dementia
Late-onset epilepsy has been linked to a substantially increased risk of subsequent dementia. Results of a retrospective analysis show that patients who develop epilepsy at age 67 or older have a threefold increased risk of subsequent dementia versus their counterparts without epilepsy. “We are finding that just as the risk of seizures is increased in neurodegenerative diseases, the risk of dementia is increased after late-onset epilepsy and seizures,” study investigator Emily L. Johnson, MD, assistant professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, said in an interview. “Several other on-going studies are finding similar results,” she added.
Epilepsy Treatment Expansion Approval
The FDA expanded its approval of lacosamide, marketed as Vimpat, to include add-on therapy for primary generalized tonic-clonic seizures as well as an IV formulation for patients aged 4 years and older.