Targeting seizure-induced neurogenesis in a clinically relevant time period leads to transient but not persistent seizure reduction

Parul Varma, Rebecca Brulet, Ling Zhang, Jenny Hsieh

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Scopus citations

Abstract

Mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (mTLE), the most common form of medically refractory epilepsy in adults, is usually associated with hippocampal pathophysiology. Using rodent models of mTLE, many studies including work from our laboratory have shown that new neurons born around the onset of severe acute seizures known as status epilepticus (SE) are crucial for the process of epileptogenesis and targeting seizure-induced neurogenesis either genetically or pharmacologically can impact the frequency of chronic seizures. However, these studies are limited in their clinical relevance as none of them determines the potential of blocking new neurons generated after the epileptogenic insult to alleviate the development of chronic seizures. Therefore, using a pilocarpine-induced SE model of mTLE in mice of either sex, we show that >4 weeks of continuous and concurrent ablation of seizure-induced neurogenesis after SE can reduce the formation of spontaneous recurrent seizures by 65%. We also found that blocking post-SE neurogenesis does not lead to long-term seizure reduction as the effect was observed only transiently for 10 d with>4 weeks of continuous and concurrent ablation of seizureinduced neurogenesis. Thus, these findings provide evidence that seizure-induced neurogenesis when adequately reduced in a clinically relevant time period has the potential to transiently suppress recurrent seizures, but additional mechanisms need to be targeted to permanently prevent epilepsy development.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)7019-7028
Number of pages10
JournalJournal of Neuroscience
Volume39
Issue number35
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 28 2019

Keywords

  • Adult neurogenesis
  • Epilepsy
  • Hippocampus
  • MTLE
  • Neural stem cell
  • Newborn neurons

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Neuroscience

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Targeting seizure-induced neurogenesis in a clinically relevant time period leads to transient but not persistent seizure reduction'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this