Epilepsy Research

News

August 2025

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Enhancing Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP) research through development of pre-clinical common data elements

CURE Epilepsy research staff have published two papers on pre-clinical data standardization in SUDEP! Thank you to the SUDEP Data Standardization Project Steering Committee and Working Group as well as the BAND Foundation.

SUDEP is a fatal complication for individuals living with epilepsy. While certain neurotransmitters and neuronal pathways have been associated with SUDEP, the exact biological mechanisms are unknown. Preclinical research has been instrumental in providing clues to the underlying pathology but is limited by a lack of standardized methodologies for describing and collecting data. A key outcome of the Basic Science working group of the 2020 SUDEP Coalition Summit was the recognition that the development of standardized tools would greatly enhance SUDEP research. Such a research infrastructure would increase experimental rigor, repeatability, reproducibility, and transparency and finally, increase the chances that preclinical SUDEP research can be translated into real benefits for people.

Building on standardized methodology, CURE Epilepsy researchers assembled a Steering Committee and Working Groups consisting of experts in preclinical and clinical SUDEP research to develop Common Data Elements (CDEs) and Case Report Forms (CRFs) to enable standardization and translation of preclinical SUDEP data.

Microstructural injury to the optic nerve with vigabatrin treatment in West syndrome: a DTI study

Vigabatrin is a widely used antiseizure medication for the treatment of West syndrome, also known as infantile epileptic spasms syndrome. However, vigabatrin has been associated with adverse side effects on the visual system, affecting approximately one-third of children taking the antiseizure medication. These effects—commonly referred to as vigabatrin-induced retinopathy—are characterized by changes in the visual system that can lead to functional deficits. However, evaluating vigabatrin-related visual impairment in children remains a clinical challenge. In older children with sufficient cognitive ability, standard visual field testing can be performed. In younger children, detecting vigabatrin-induced retinopathy remains difficult due to developmental constraints and the lack of effective testing methods.

Seeing the need for an alternative detection strategy in young children, researchers recently evaluated optic nerve injury associated with vigabatrin treatment in children with West syndrome using an advanced imaging method called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). This type of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) maps the diffusion of water molecules in the brain. By measuring the direction and magnitude of water diffusion, DTI provides insights into the structural organization of the neural connections in the brain, specifically, the white matter tracts that connect different brain regions, such as the optic nerves.

Long-term hippocampal low-frequency stimulation alleviates focal seizures, memory deficits and synaptic pathology in epileptic mice

Mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) is the most common form of focal intractable epilepsy in adults, associated with spontaneous recurrent seizures, hippocampal sclerosis, and long-term memory deficits. Approximately one-third of epilepsy patients do not respond to antiseizure medications, making invasive treatments such as resective surgery, ablative procedures, or neurostimulation important treatment options.

Although surgical treatment is the only curative option for medication-resistant epilepsy patients, it is not feasible when the seizure onset zone is not clearly identifiable or lies in certain brain regions. Neurostimulation via implanted devices offers an alternative for patients ineligible or reluctant to undergo surgery. A new approach called low-frequency stimulation (LFS) has shown promising seizure reduction in animal studies and small clinical cohorts, but how it works and the long-term effects remain unknown.

In a recent study, researchers aimed to identify the antiepileptic and cognitive outcomes and potential underlying biological mechanisms of long-term hippocampal LFS in chronically epileptic mice.

Early-onset neonatal infection and epilepsy in children

In a recent study, researchers explored the association between early-onset neonatal infection, specifically sepsis and meningitis, and childhood epilepsy.

Neonatal infection can be caused by bacterial infection around the time of birth; the bacteria may be transferred from the mother to the unborn child before birth or by infection during delivery. Researchers believe that inflammation caused by both early-onset sepsis and meningitis may lead to injury in the brain and interfere with normal brain development, increasing the risk of neurological disorders such as epilepsy.

In a nationwide study of almost 1 million Danish children, early-onset neonatal sepsis and meningitis, determined by diagnoses and bacterial cultures, were associated with an increased risk of childhood epilepsy.  

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