The role of brainstem in the generation of infantile spasms

脑干在婴儿痉挛症发生中的作用

• 批准号: 7663143
• 负责人: Aristea S Galanopoulou
• 金额: $ 19.1万
• 依托单位: ALBERT EINSTEIN COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-08-01 至 2013-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7663143
• 关键词: 6-Cyano-7-nitroquinoxaline-2,3-dione; Abbreviations; Adverse effects; Age; Agonist; Antiepileptic Agents; Appearance; Area; Behavioral; Benchmarking; Bilateral; Biological Markers; Brain; Brain Stem; Cerebrospinal Fluid; Chloride Channels; Clinical; Corticotropin; Development; Disease; Dopamine; Doxorubicin; Drug Combinations; Electrophysiology (science); Encephalopathies; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; Enzymes; Epilepsy; Evolution; Exhibits; Fenclonine; Functional disorder; Funding; Future; Gene Expression; Generations; Glutamate Decarboxylase; Hormones; Hypsarrhythmia; Image; Immunofluorescence Immunologic; In Vitro; Infant; Infantile spasms; Injection of therapeutic agent; Intractable Epilepsy; Intraperitoneal Injections; Intraventricular; Laboratories; Lesion; Link; Lipopolysaccharides; Mediating; Medicine; Membrane Potentials; Methods; Microscope; Modeling; Monitor; NMDA receptor antagonist; Neurocognitive; Neurodevelopmental Deficit; Neurodevelopmental Impairment; Neurons; Operative Surgical Procedures; Outcome Study; Pathogenesis; Pathway interactions; Patients; Pattern; Pharmaceutical Preparations; Physiology; Predisposition; Process; Protein Isoforms; Rattus; Research Personnel; Rest; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; Rodent Model; Role; Screening procedure; Seizures; Signal Transduction; Sodium-Potassium-Chloride Symporters; Spasm; Staining method; Structure; Substantia nigra structure; Symptomatic West Syndrome; Syndrome; Techniques; Testing; Therapeutic; Therapeutic Intervention; Time; Treatment Efficacy; Tryptophan 5-monooxygenase; Tube; Tyrosine 3-Monooxygenase; Vigabatrin; Work; base; carbonate dehydratase; chloride-cotransporter potassium; college; design; dopaminergic neuron; effective therapy; functional restoration; gamma-Aminobutyric Acid; improved; in vivo; infancy; insight; meetings; novel; outcome forecast; pars compacta; patch clamp; postnatal; postsynaptic; premature; programs; pup; receptor; research study; response; therapy development

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Infantile spasms are an age-specific epileptic syndrome manifesting as clusters of spasms, impaired neurocognitive development, and often evolution to intractable epilepsy. The current treatment of infantile spasms is not always effective and is often associated with serious side effects. There is an urgent need to develop new effective therapies for this syndrome, as recognized recently in the NINDS-funded Curing Epilepsy meeting (2007). In this project, we plan to use a novel and only model of symptomatic infantile spasms in rats, to investigate the pathophysiology of this syndrome, identify biomarkers of therapeutic efficacy, upon which to screen new therapies. In preliminary studies, we have identified abnormalities in the physiology and function of the dopaminergic substantia nigra pars compacta neurons. Our specific aims are to determine whether these are ictal or interictal phenomena linked with the expression or predisposition to spasms and determine whether drugs that enhance the hyperpolarizing effects of GABAA receptors may increase the efficacy of existing GABAAergic antiepileptic drugs in suppressing the in vitro abnormalities associated with spasms as well as in treating spasms. To this end, we will use a combination of techniques, including stereotactic surgery and microinfusion of drugs, behavioral monitoring, in vivo and in vitro electrophysiology, histological and immunofluorescence methods of staining and confocal imaging, and gene expression analysis by quantitative RT-PCR. It is expected that at the conclusion of this study we will know whether the identified in vitro abnormalities are valid in vitro biomarkers for rapid screening of new therapies for infantile spasms. Furthermore, a potentially beneficial method of improving currently used antiepileptic drugs may be proven to-be beneficial in the treatment of infantile spasms. Lay Summary: Infantile spasms are an age-specific, difficult to treat, epileptic syndrome, often associated with neurodevelopmental impairments, especially in infants with pre-existing brain abnormalities (symptomatic infantile spasms). Given the urgency to identify new effective therapies, we plan to study a novel model of symptomatic infantile spasms, to identify and validate novel in vitro biomarkers of therapeutic efficacy, which will allow rapid screening of novel candidate therapies. We anticipate that the outcome of this study will provide new insights into the pathophysiology of the disease opening new avenues for effective treatments.

描述（由申请人提供）：婴儿痉挛症是一种年龄特异性癫痫综合征，表现为痉挛丛集、神经认知发育受损，并且常常演变为难治性癫痫。目前对婴儿痉挛症的治疗并不总是有效，并且常常伴有严重的副作用。正如最近在 NINDS 资助的治愈癫痫会议（2007 年）上所认识到的那样，迫切需要为这种综合征开发新的有效疗法。在这个项目中，我们计划使用一种新颖且唯一的大鼠症状性婴儿痉挛模型，研究该综合征的病理生理学，确定治疗效果的生物标志物，并据此筛选新疗法。在初步研究中，我们发现多巴胺能黑质致密部神经元的生理学和功能异常。我们的具体目标是确定这些是否是与痉挛的表达或倾向相关的发作期或发作间期现象，并确定增强 GABAA 受体超极化作用的药物是否可以提高现有 GABAA 能抗癫痫药物在抑制与痉挛相关的体外异常以及治疗痉挛方面的功效。为此，我们将结合使用多种技术，包括立体定向手术和微量药物输注、行为监测、体内和体外电生理学、染色和共聚焦成像的组织学和免疫荧光方法以及定量 RT-PCR 的基因表达分析。预计在本研究结束时，我们将知道所鉴定的体外异常是否是用于快速筛选婴儿痉挛症新疗法的有效体外生物标志物。此外，改进目前使用的抗癫痫药物的潜在有益方法可能被证明有益于治疗婴儿痉挛症。简单总结：婴儿痉挛症是一种年龄特异性、难以治疗的癫痫综合征，通常与神经发育障碍有关，特别是对于预先存在大脑异常（有症状的婴儿痉挛症）的婴儿。鉴于确定新的有效疗法的紧迫性，我们计划研究一种新的症状性婴儿痉挛模型，以确定和验证治疗功效的新型体外生物标志物，这将有助于快速筛选新的候选疗法。我们预计这项研究的结果将为该疾病的病理生理学提供新的见解，为有效治疗开辟新途径。