The latest results from a CURE-funded grant represent a promising advance in the quest to prevent post-traumatic epilepsy. Dr. Thomas Sutula from the University of Wisconsin and his team have found that the administration of 2-Deoxy-D-Glucose (2DG) following a traumatic brain injury can significantly reduce the subsequent development of post-traumatic epilepsy in a rodent model.
The finding that 2DG can prevent the development of post-traumatic epilepsy in rats is exciting for several reasons. 2DG is a sugar-like molecule that has been proposed to mimic the ketogenic diet – a diet that is highly effective in the treatment of difficult-to-treat epilepsies. Therefore, like the ketogenic diet, 2DG may also have therapeutic effects for individuals that have already developed epilepsy (in this case, post-traumatic epilepsy). 2DG is also already being used in the treatment of other illnesses, including cancer, and can likely progress rapidly to a clinical trial for post-traumatic epilepsy. Furthermore, with this research, Dr. Sutula and his team have successfully utilized a novel rat model that more readily develops a post traumatic-epilepsy-like syndrome with frequent seizures following traumatic brain injury, providing a great research tool in the quest for treatments and a cure for post-traumatic epilepsy.
Post-traumatic epilepsy is a type of epilepsy that develops following a traumatic brain injury such as a bump or blow to the head. Post-traumatic epilepsy accounts for nearly 20% of all symptomatic epilepsies in the general population, and is one of the most common causes of acquired epilepsy. Post-traumatic epilepsy can be particularly devastating because no known prevention or cure for the disorder currently exists.
Because post-traumatic epilepsy can develop months or even years after an initial traumatic brain injury, there is a critical window of time during which the development of post-traumatic epilepsy might be prevented, if only a preventative measure were in existence. For these reasons, Dr. Sutula’s finding that 2DG significantly reduces the development of post-traumatic epilepsy in his novel breed of rat within this critical window is an important one.
In the future, Dr. Sutula and his team plan on taking strategic steps to push their research forward towards an Investigational New Drug trial to test the effectiveness of this drug in the prevention of post-traumatic epilepsy in humans. In this way, Dr. Sutula hopes that his research will impact the lives of individuals suffering from post-traumatic epilepsy, or those with the potential to develop post-traumatic epilepsy, as soon as possible.