In what may pave the way for an effective treatment for epilepsy, scientists claim to have identified an ancient gene family which is linked to epileptic seizures.
A team, led by Timothy Jegla of Penn State University, has found in their study that the ancient gene family — Kv12.2 — plays a major role in regulating the excitability of nerves within the brain, the Biology and Nature journal reported.
“In healthy people, nerves do not fire excessively in response to small stimuli. This function allows us to focus on what really matters. Nerve cells maintain a threshold between rest and excitement, and a stimulus has to cross this threshold to cause the nerve cells to fire. However, when this threshold is set too low, neurons can become hyperactive and fire in synchrony. As excessive firing spreads across the brain, the result is an epileptic seizure,” said Timothy Jegla, who led a team at Penn State University.
Timothy Jegla’s team at Penn State University put their focus on the potassium-channel gene Kv12.2 as it is active in resting nerve cells and expressed in brain regions prone to seizure.
He said: “We decided that Kv12.2 was a good candidate for study because it is part of an old gene family that has been conserved throughout animal evolution.
“This ancient gene family probably first appeared in the genomes of sea-dwelling creatures prior to the Cambrian era about 542-million years ago. It is still with us and doing something very important in present day animals.”