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| Epilepsy |
| Seyfried Laboratory |
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| Figure Caption:Perspectives on the metabolic management of epilepsy through a dietary reduction of glucose and elevation of ketone bodies. A dietary reduction in blood glucose levels will increase ketone utilization. This is expected to shift the neural environment from excitation to inhibition. Abbreviations: GLUT-1 (glucose transporter), MCT (monocarboxylate transporter), PFK (phosphofructokinase), PDH (pyruvate dehydrogenase), SCOT (succinyl-CoA-acetoacetate-CoA transferase), b-OHB (b-hydroxybutyrate), GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid). |
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| Gene Environmental Interactions in the Metabolic Control of Epilepsy |
| The epilepsies refer to convulsive disorders. Any tendency to experience recurrent seizure activity of major or minor intensity is known as epilepsy. We are applying dietary therapies, including the ketogenic diet and caloric restriction, to manage seizure susceptibility in epileptic EL mice and in mice with inherited audiogenic seizures. The EL mouse is an excellent model for idiopathic multifactorial epilepsy in humans, whereas audiogenic seizures model human reflex epilepsy and SUDEP (sudden unexpected death in epilepsy). As in humans with idiopathic epilepsy, seizure susceptibility in EL mice is influenced by a number of environmental and genetic factors (age, gender, prior seizure history, diet, etc.). Besides anti-epileptic diet therapies, we are also hunting for the genes causing EL epilepsy and audiogenic seizures and in defining how environmental factors affect these genes. |
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| Figure above from : |
| AE Greene, MT Torodova , and TN Seyfried. 2003. Perspectives on the metabolic management of epilepsy through dietary reduction of glucose and elevation of ketone bodies. J Neurochem Aug; 86(3): 529-537. |
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