Perisomatic Inhibitory Network Dysfunction in Neurological Disease

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): An estimated 200,000 new cases of epilepsy are diagnosed each year in the United States. Temporal lobe epilepsy, the most common epileptic syndrome, often develops following early unprovoked seizures and is particularly resistant to mainstream antiepileptic drugs. The hippocampal dentate gyrus is at the heart of the characteristic structural and functional changes that underlie temporal lobe epilepsy. A network of perisomatically projecting GABAergic interneurons regulates the excitability of dentate projection neurons, the granule cells. Activity and synchrony of inhibitory networks are governed by a combination of gap junctional and GABAergic chemical connections. However, whether GABAergic inhibition and electrical coupling among the perisomatic interneurons are modified during development of epilepsy and underlie the instability in network activity in epilepsy is yet to be examined. Additionally, dynamic changes in inhibitory and electrical coupling among interneurons are likely to determine the duration and spread of seizures. Understanding how activity patterns in the perisomatic inhibitory network are altered following status epilepticus and dynamically regulated during seizures will help evaluate whether pharmacological manipulation of gap junctions and GABA receptors would be effective in treating epilepsy. The hypothesis of this proposal is that status epilepticus (SE) alters non-synaptic and synaptic coupling between fast-spiking perisomatic dentate interneurons resulting in enhanced mutual inhibition which compromises feedback inhibition of projection neurons. It is further proposed that modulation of inhibitory currents and electrical coupling by pH changes that accompany neuronal activity undermine perisomatic inhibition during neuronal activity enhancing dentate excitability and contributing to epileptogenesis. The study will use pilocarpine induced status epilepticus to model development of acquired epilepsy, and a combination of anatomical, physiological and computational approaches to address the following specific questions. Aim 1 will identify the presence of tonic GABA currents in fast-spiking basket cells and examine whether post-status enhancement of tonic GABA currents compromise perisomatic inhibition of granule cells. Aim 2 will identify post-status changes in synaptic and electrical coupling among basket cells and their effects on dentate network excitability and synchrony. Aim 3 will test whether activity-dependent modulation of basket cell synaptic and non-synaptic coupling by acidic pH shifts accompanying neuronal activity undermines inhibition and contributes to epileptogenesis after status epilepticus. It is anticipated that the study will identify fundamental mechanisms underlying dynamical instability of dentate network activity in acquired epilepsy.