For the first time, a pill for cancer will be tested as an epilepsy cure. The human trial will begin in seven months.
Human Trial for Cancer Treatment as Anticonvulsant
A cancer treatment drug developed in Melbourne over a decade ago can potentially treat epilepsy. The world's first human trial for the pill as an anticonvulsant will begin in October, Sky News reported.
Researchers at the University of Melbourne developed the pill called sodium selenate. The drug will be tested for epileptic patients after years of studying its potential to help patients with seizures.
The Monash University and The Alfred will recruit 12 Australians to replicate the results of earlier animal-based trials. There are over 150,000 individuals with epilepsy in Australia, and over a third of them are unable to manage their condition with the available anti-seizure drugs.
Terry O'Brien, head of Monash Neuroscience and deputy director of research at Alfred Health, has been studying the effects of sodium selenate on epilepsy since 2012. He told Herald Sun that there had been a lot of epilepsy research. However, a single therapy has not been developed to prevent its development nor mitigate its severity once established.
The studies of sodium senate to treat seizures have shown promising results. O'Brien was involved in a study using the drug to prevent the development of epilepsy in rats in what is known as epileptogenesis.
They noticed that the drug worked by changing the accumulation of a protein in the brain called tau, which reportedly damages brain cells in degenerative disorders like Alzheimer's and dementia.
The results were supported by the experiment that served as the basis of the upcoming human trial - which tested rats with epilepsy.
Lucy Vivash from Monash Neuroscience will lead the clinical test in October. She told Herald Sun that there was no reason that the results could not be replicated in humans.
According to her, their data shows that a proportion of the animals in the preclinical study stopped having seizures altogether. The remainder had fewer and less severe seizures.
They suspect that reducing the amount of toxic tau can alleviate the symptoms of epilepsy and prevent ongoing symptoms. They are hopeful that the disorder may be curative in the future.
What Is Epilepsy?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, epilepsy is a disorder of the brain and is sometimes called "seizure disorder." A person is diagnosed with epilepsy after having two or more seizures.
A seizure is a short change in the brain's normal activity. It is the main sign of epilepsy.
Some seizures appear like staring spells. Others cause one to fall, shake and even lose awareness. A seizure can last from a few seconds to a few minutes, depending on the type of seizure.
Different conditions, including the following, can cause several conditions:
- Stroke.
- Brain tumor.
- Brain infection from parasites (malaria, neurocysticercosis), viruses (influenza, dengue, Zika), and bacteria.
- Traumatic brain injury or head injury.
- Loss of oxygen to the brain (for example, during birth).
- Some genetic disorders (such as Down syndrome).
- Other neurologic diseases (such as Alzheimer's disease).
However, for 2 in 3 people, the cause of epilepsy is reportedly unknown, and this type is called cryptogenic or idiopathic.
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