UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A new drug that inhibits neonatal seizures in rodent models could open up new avenues for the treatment of epilepsy in human newborns. Researchers have identified that gluconate — a small organic compound found in fruit and honey — acts as an anti-convulsant, inhibiting seizures by targeting the activity of channels that control the flow of chloride ions in and out of neonatal neurons.
A paper describing the research, from an international team of scientists led by Penn State researchers, appears May 15 in the journal Molecular Brain.
“Neonates are the most vulnerable population to seizures, but there is still no effective medication for the treatment of neonatal epilepsy,” said Gong Chen, professor of biology and the Verne M. Willaman Chair in Life Sciences at Penn State and the leader of the research team. “The incidence of epilepsy is highest in the first year of life, with two to four infant babies suffering from neonatal epilepsy for every 1,000 live births in the United States. Unfortunately, so far there is no effective drug available that is specifically developed for neonatal epilepsy patients.”
Over the past decades, many drugs have been developed to treat epilepsy in adults. However, neonatal epilepsy patients are often resistant to or do not respond to current anti-epilepsy drugs, and long-term use of some of these treatments may have side effects on brain development. In the current study, Chen and his colleagues demonstrated that gluconate can inhibit seizure activity in neonatal neurons. More importantly, gluconate suppresses seizure activity in neonatal animals more effectively than in adults.
“This is truly exciting because we have finally identified a potential anti-convulsant drug that shows preference to inhibit neonatal seizure activity,” said Chen.
Gluconate is already widely used in the food and pharmaceutical industries as an inactive food or drug additive. For example, it can bind with metal ions to form stable gluconate salts, such as calcium-gluconate, potassium-gluconate, and zinc-gluconate, that are used for the uptake of metal-ion supplements.