Brain tissue tests raise hope of new epilepsy treatments

Published on Monday 30 November 2009 21:54

PIONEERING research using human brain tissue removed from people suffering from epilepsy has opened the door to new treatments for the disease.

Scientists at Newcastle University have, for the first time, been able to record spontaneous epileptic activity in brain tissue removed from patients undergoing neurosurgery.

Led by Dr Mark Cunningham, the research has revealed that a particular type of brain wave pattern associated with epilepsy is caused by electrical connections between nerve cells in the brain – rather than chemical ones.

This means the traditional drugs are useless to them.

Dr Cunningham said the findings marked a huge step forward in our understanding of a disease which affects an estimated 45 million people worldwide.

"Our findings help us to understand what is going wrong and are an important step towards finding new epilepsy treatments in the future," he said.

The findings are published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.