Hee Jung Chung

Neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease affect more than 270 million people worldwide. AD is the leading cause of dementia, resulting in memory loss due to atrophy of neurons in the hippocampus, which is the part of the brain that regulates learning and memory. Nanoparticles designed to carry drugs have emerged as a strategy for treating different diseases, but in the context of neurodegenerative disease, much of the research has focused on developing strategies for getting nanoparticles across the blood brain barrier and into targeted regions of the brain.

Researchers studying epileptic seizures of the temporal lobe – the most common type of epilepsy – discovered a compound that reduces seizures in the hippocampus, a brain region where many such seizures originate. The compound, known as TC-2153, lessened the severity of seizures in mice.

The scientists report their findings in the journal Epilepsia.

Mice with a genetic mutation that’s been observed in patients with epileptic encephalopathy, a severe form of congenital epilepsy, exhibit not only the seizure, developmental and behavioral symptoms of the disorder, but also neural degeneration and inflammation in the brain, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers found in a new study. The findings highlight the mutation as an important part of the disease’s pathology and a potential target for treatment.

Whether healthy or diseased, human cells exhibit behaviors and processes that are largely dictated by growth factor molecules, which bind to receptors on the cells. For example, growth factors tell the cells to divide, move, and when to die—a process known as apoptosis.