s): Abstract Uncontrolled epileptic seizures plague more than one million Americans, despite the best medical and surgical treatments available. Novel therapies are desperately needed. We have formed a productive collaboration between a biomedical engineer and a translational clinician-scientist to pioneer a novel approach to suppressing generation of seizures using direct closed-loop multielectrode microstimulation of the epileptic focus. The method is based on our exciting in vitro work in which epileptiform activity in neuronal cultures was completely blocked by low voltage, low frequency microstimulation, distributed across multiple electrodes. The goal of the present project is to translate these results in vivo. We have manufactured a novel custom-designed system to simultaneously stimulate and record from chronically implanted microelectrodes in a closed-loop feedback fashion. We will optimize the parameters and materials to effectively maintain the firing rate of neurons in the epileptic focus in a range from which bursts of action potential - which underlie epileptic seizures - are prevented from occurring. Our success will be measured by demonstrating modulation of electrographic (EEG) and behavioral seizure activity in our rat model of focal onset seizures. If successful, this work will lead to a new treatment for patients disabled by intractable focal onset seizures.
To treat intractable focal-onset epileptic seizures, we propose a novel approach in which electrical stimulation - continuously delivered to the epileptic focus through arrays of microelectrodes - is tuned to maintain neural activity in a range from which epileptic seizures cannot arise. In this approach, which is based on our ability to completely suppress epileptiform bursts of action potentials in a cell culture model, state-control methodology prevents seizures from arising, rather than attempting to abort seizures after they arise. This translational research in a rodent focal epilepsy model hopefully will lead to a much needed novel treatment for patients with disabling, intractable focal-onset seizures.
