Effects of Transcranial Focal Electrical Stimulation Via Concentric Ring Electrodes on Seizure Activity
Document Type
Article
Date of Original Version
1-1-2023
Abstract
Epilepsy affects approximately one percent of the planet’s population. There does not appear to be any single therapy that works for all types of epilepsies. As an alternative, we have been developing a noninvasive, or minimally invasive, transcranial focal electrical stimulation (TFS) based on the novel tripolar concentric ring electrode (TCRE). By applying biphasic, charge balanced, constant current, pulses noninvasively through the TCRE, we have realized acute seizure attenuation in rats. In different rat seizure models (penicillin, pilocarpine, pentylenetetrazol, 3-mercaptopropionic acid) and through hundreds of experiments, we have demonstrated that TFS successfully aborted seizures, and even status epilepticus, a severe form of seizure activity that is estimated to cause the death of 20,000 to 40,000 people each year in the US alone. Additionally, TFS selectively increased gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and decreased glutamate extracellular levels concurrently. TFS also prevented naïve brains from epileptogenesis in the electrical amygdala kindling in cats, a larger animal model. TFS reduces the over-release of glutamate, brain damage, and Pgp overexpression and function induced by seizures. TFS augments the effects of phenytoin (PHT) in animals with PHT-resistant seizures. Further, TFS potentiated the effectiveness of diazepam. Lastly, TFS does not induce brain damage nor alter memory in rats or humans and does not cause sensation or pain, allowing truly double-blinded studies. In conclusion, we have found TFS to be effective at preventing, aborting, or attenuating acute seizures induced by penicillin, pilocarpine, pentylenetetrazol, and 3-mercaptopropionic acid and was safe. Lastly, TFS reverted the drug-resistant seizures (DRS) in rats, and we hope that it will have similar effects in humans. In the future, we need to test if TFS is tolerable, safe, and effective in humans with pharmacoresistant epilepsy.
Publication Title, e.g., Journal
Pharmacoresistance in Epilepsy from Genes and Molecules to Promising Therapies Second Edition
Citation/Publisher Attribution
Besio, Walter G.. "Effects of Transcranial Focal Electrical Stimulation Via Concentric Ring Electrodes on Seizure Activity." Pharmacoresistance in Epilepsy from Genes and Molecules to Promising Therapies Second Edition (2023). doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-36526-3_26.