Title:Drug Treatment of Epilepsy: From Serendipitous Discovery to Evolutionary
Mechanisms
Volume: 29
Issue: 19
Author(s): Shengying Lou and Sunliang Cui*
Affiliation:
- Institute of Drug Discovery and Design, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou,
China
Keywords:
Antiepileptic drugs, mechanism of action, voltage-gated ion channels, glutamate, GABA, synaptic vesicles.
Abstract: Epilepsy is a chronic brain disorder caused by the abnormal firing of neurons.
Up to now, the use of antiepileptic drugs is the main method of epilepsy treatment. The
development of antiepileptic drugs lasted for centuries. In general, most agents entering
clinical practice act on the balance mechanisms of brain “excitability-inhibition”. More
specifically, they target voltage-gated ion channels, GABAergic transmission and glutamatergic
transmission. In recent years, some novel drugs representing new mechanisms
of action have been discovered. Although there are about 30 available drugs in the market,
it is still in urgent need of discovering more effective and safer drugs. The development
of new antiepileptic drugs is into a new era: from serendipitous discovery to evolutionary
mechanism-based design. This article presents an overview of drug treatment of
epilepsy, including a series of traditional and novel drugs.