|
|
Article: Signal's "brake" in brain impaired.
- Article from:
- Drug Week
- Article date:
- August 20, 2004
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 NewsRX. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
2004 AUG 20 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- To date, epilepsy research has mainly concentrated on the transmission of the nerve cell signals to what are known as the synapses. However, recent observations by medical researchers from the U.S., France and the University of Bonn support the idea that in "falling sickness" the signal processing in the neurons is altered; normally specific ion channels absorb the neuronal activity.
In rats suffering from epilepsy, however, this signal's brake seems impaired. They have far fewer functioning ion channels than healthy rats. The results were published in Science (2004;305(5683)) and offer hope of new therapeutic ...