Targeted Therapies for Epilepsy
A special issue of Pharmaceuticals (ISSN 1424-8247). This special issue belongs to the section "Pharmacology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 June 2024 | Viewed by 1212
Special Issue Editors
Interests: neuroscience; peptides; steroids
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: epileptogenesis; epilepsy; pharmacoresistance; status epilepticus
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Epilepsy is a major neurological disorder resulting in important health, social, and economic burdens for patients, families, and society. The most challenging issue in epilepsy research is the development of treatments able to prevent the appearance of spontaneous recurrent seizures after an initial precipitating injury, i.e., to prevent epileptogenesis. Indeed, the prevention of epileptogenesis should be the next-generation goal standard of new epilepsy treatments.
However, when epilepsy is already established, new antiseizure medications (ASMs) may also be suitable. Indeed, despite the availability of various ASMs, one-third of patients suffering from epilepsy are considered “drug-resistant” and cannot achieve satisfactory seizure control. In this case, a major obstacle in developing new targeted therapies for epilepsy, and especially drug-resistant epilepsy, is that the mechanisms of drug resistance are still scarcely understood. In addition to this, most patients with chronic intractable epilepsy are resistant to different mechanistically distinct anti-seizure medications.
Another important goal for a new targeted therapy for epilepsy should be to avoid the adverse effects of ASMs, which normally result in drug discontinuation.
For these reasons, new chemical compounds, and alternative potential therapies such as neurostimulation, dietary treatments, gene therapy, and cell transplantation, can be proposed to control epilepsy.
Prof. Dr. Giuseppe Biagini
Dr. Anna-Maria Costa
Dr. Chiara Lucchi
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- epilepsy
- temporal lobe epilepsy
- neurological disorder
- spontaneous recurrent seizures
- epileptogenesis
- antiepileptogenic medications
- antiseizure medications
- drug-resistant epilepsy
- adverse effects
- drug discontinuation
