Towards The Understanding Of The Epitranscriptome In Epileptogenesis

The molecular mechanisms which drive the development of epilepsy following epilepsy-inciting events are still being unravelled. Once thought to merely represent the DNA code and facilitate translation, RNA has more recently been shown to be involved in numerous cellular and disease processes through the discovery of non-coding RNAs, regulatory long non-coding-RNA, circular RNAs, etc. Similarly, the regulation of RNA itself has been shown to be extremely complex. Analogous to DNA methylation and phosphorylation of proteins, RNAs have been shown to be subjected to complex regulation which determines their function. This work aims to characterise RNA regulation and function in pre-clinical mouse models of epilepsy and in human epileptic tissue, and understand how aberrant regulation of RNA can contribute to the development of epilepsy. It is hoped that gaining a more thorough understanding of the molecular drivers of epileptogenesis will allow the identification of novel anti-epileptogenic targets.