Posted for Asher Mullard

Epilepsy may develop as a result of the body’s own defensive cells getting stuck to blood vessels, researchers report in Nature Medicine.

Leaks in the blood brain barrier, which normally prevents harmful molecules from passing from blood into the brain, have been implicated in inducing seizures and epilepsy. However, it is unclear what mechanisms might lead to rupture of the blood brain barrier.

Paolo Fabene, of the University of Verona in Italy, and his colleagues now show that leukocytes, cells of the immune system that defend the body from bacteria and virus, might be responsible.

Using a mouse model of epilepsy, researchers found that during seizures ‘sticky’ adhesion molecules are more prevalent in blood vessels and that leukocytes consequently stick more to the sides of blood vessels, causing inflammation that leads to seizures.

“This mechanism was not previously suspected in epilepsy,” study author Gabriela Constantin told Reuters.

In addition, antibodies that block the effects of the ‘sticky’ molecules and prevent leukocytes from sticking reduced the harmful effects and the severity of seizures and prevented the development of epilepsy in mice, the researchers report.

Matthew Walker, a neuroscientist from University College London who did not participate in the study, told the BBC that this study “provides a further piece of evidence for a breakdown in the blood barrier in the development of epilepsy”.

An initial, non-epileptic seizure might lead to the development of epilepsy in previously unaffected people because of the effects of stuck leukocytes, he explains. He added that “this study could lead to trials of novel treatments for epilepsy in the near future”.