Propofol Shows Potential for Treating Epilepsy and Neurological Disorders
July 31, 2024
Article published by News Medical
According to a new study led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and Linköping University in Sweden, the general anesthetic propofol may hold the keys to developing new treatment strategies for epilepsy and other neurological disorders. In a recent study, researchers determined the high-resolution structural details of how propofol inhibits the activity of HCN1, an ion channel protein found on many types of neurons. The researchers also found, to their surprise, that when HCN1 contains either of two epilepsy-associated mutations, propofol binds to it in a way that restores its functionality. As they investigated propofol’s action on HCN1, the researchers examined how the drug affects different known mutants of the channel, including mutants that leave it excessively open and are associated with hard-to-treat epilepsy syndromes such as early infantile epileptic encephalopathy (EIEE). “We might be able to exploit propofol’s unique way of binding to HCN1 for the treatment of drug-resistant epilepsies and other HCN1-linked disorders, either by directly repurposing propofol or by designing new, more selective drugs that have the same mechanism of action,” said Dr. Crina Nimigean, study co-senior author, professor of physiology and biophysics in anesthesiology at Weill Cornell Medicine.