Pharmacological manipulation of CCL2/CCR2 interaction on temporal lobe epilepsy genesis and development

Abstract

Epilepsy is characterized by spontaneous recurrent seizures and is commonly associated with previous episode of traumatic brain injury or an episode of status epilepticus. Following the initial precipitating injury there is a silent period when plastic alterations occur on the nervous tissue culminating on recurrent seizures. Recently the neuroinflammation and glial role on epileptogenic plasticity has been studied. The status epilepticus induced by pilocarpine injection model mimics seizure development and typical tissue alterations of neuronal circuitry in humans, among them, significant increase in citokines and chemokines expression, such as CCL2 protein (C-C motif ligand 2 chemokine), which binds to its CCR2 receptor (CCL2 Receptor), present in neurons, astrocytes and circulating monocytes. Citokines are expressed in healthy brain tissue and participate in the neuroinflammatory response after an initial precipitating injury such as status epilepticus. These signaling molecules participate in neuroplastic changes, deterioration of damaged tissue and epileptogenesis. The study of the CCL2/CCR2 interaction blocking on epileptogenesis and seizure susceptibility can point to new treatment strategies and to improve knowledge of nervous and imune systems signalling exchange. The objective of this project is to investigate the effect of pharmacological manipulation of the CCL2/CCR2 interaction on seizure development, through analyses of changes in nervous tissue and alterations on susceptibility to seizure reinduction. (AU)