Novel therapeutic targets for epilepsy intervention

Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder involving recurrent seizures and affecting about 1% of the population worldwide. Despite several antiepileptic drugs and effective therapies available for epilepsy, about 25% of the patients show therapeutic failure. Thus there exists an unmet need for newer antiepileptic drugs targeting newer targets with different mechanisms of action. Current research in epilepsy generally focuses on mechanisms that control neuronal excitability. Recently attention has been focussed on novel targets, their various interactions, and signalling cascades relating to epilepsy. This review summarizes several experimental and clinical findings from literature and explores potential targets which may play crucial role in epilepsy. (C) 2017 British Epilepsy Association. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.