Scientists were able to stop epileptic seizures by clearing aging brain cells

Temporal lobe epilepsy is a disease of the nervous system that causes recurrent seizures and problems with memory and thinking. New evidence suggests that in this form of epilepsy, some brain cells age faster than normal. A study from Georgetown University Medical Center showed that removing these prematurely aged cells in laboratory mice led to a sharp reduction in the number of seizures, improved cognitive function and, in some cases, prevented the development of epilepsy. To do this, scientists used both genetic approaches and drugs. The work, supported by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), was published in the journal Annals of Neurology.

To further understand the mechanisms of the disease, the researchers studied samples of donor human brain tissue surgically removed from the temporal lobes of patients with epilepsy. Compared with brain tissue obtained from autopsies from people without the disease, patients with temporal lobe epilepsy had about five times more senescent glial cells. These cells are not involved in the transmission of electrical impulses, but play an important role in supporting and protecting neurons.

The findings on human material prompted scientists to test whether a similar accumulation of senescent cells occurs in mice with genetically induced temporal lobe epilepsy. Just two weeks after the brain damage that triggered the disease, the animals showed a noticeable increase in markers of cellular aging, both at the gene and protein levels. After applying methods aimed at removing such cells, the effect was impressive: their number decreased by about half. At the same time, the mice’s memory performance in maze tests improved, the frequency of seizures decreased, and about a third of the animals did not develop epilepsy at all.

In experiments on mice, scientists used a combination of two drugs – dasatinib and quercetin. Dasatinib is a targeted antitumor drug and is already used in the treatment of leukemia. Quercetin is a natural flavonoid found in fruits, vegetables, tea and wine, known for its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Together, these substances are widely used in preclinical studies for the selective destruction of senescent cells in various diseases.

The choice of this particular combination was due to the fact that both drugs are already undergoing early clinical trials for other pathologies. Additionally, Forcelli notes, dasatinib is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat a form of leukemia, so its safety has been well studied. This circumstance could significantly speed up the launch of future clinical trials involving patients with epilepsy.