Endogenous Regulators of Mitogen Activated Protein Kinase Signaling in Human Epilepsy

Approximately one third of all epilepsy patients are resistant to current therapeutic treatments. For those with drug resistant epilepsy, some patients with focal forms of epilepsy benefit from invasive surgical approaches that can lead to large surgical resections of human epileptic neocortex. We have developed a systems biology approach to take full advantage of these resections and the brain tissues they generate as a means to understand underlying mechanisms of neocortical epilepsy and to identify novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets. Additionally, this highly characterized data and tissue bank has given us an extraordinary opportunity to explore the underlying electrical, cellular, and molecular mechanisms of the human epileptic brain. It was from this dataset that we were able to identify endogenous regulators of MAPK signaling that may reduce or contribute epileptic signaling and therefore be transformed into future therapeutics for epilepsy.