From: young@serum.kodak.com [Rich Young (x37176)]
Subject: Another possible benefit from animal testing?
Originator: young@sasquatch
Reply-To: young@serum.kodak.com
Organization: Clinical Products Division, Eastman Kodak Company
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 92 22:03:08 GMT

   The following is from SCIENCE NEWS: Vol. 142, No. 4, July 25, 1992 (quoted
   without permission):

	   "A new animal study offers hope of better treatment for so-called
	`absence' seizures in humans.

	   Also known as petit mal, this form of epilepsy occurs mainly in
	children and is marked by seconds-long lapses in consciousness.  A
	child can experience up to 100 episodes a day, during which he or
	she may seem to stare, often blinking rapidly, or sway slightly
	before recovering.  Frequent seizures can interfere with concentration
	and lead to problems in school.  Fortunately, siezure frequency
	tends to decline with time; four-fifths of all affected children
	outgrow absence seizures by age 20.

	   New findings suggest that these seizures result from an over-
	abundance of receptors for a brain chemical called gamma-aminobutyric
	acid[B] (GABA[B]), according to neurologist David A. Hosford and
	his colleagues at the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC.
	They describe their work in the July 17 SCIENCE.

	   This study represents `a major advance...the first step in 
	designing new therapies' for absence seizures, says Robert J. 
	DeLorenzo, a neurologist with the Medical College of Virginia at
	Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.

	   The anticonvulsant drugs currently used to suppress absence
	seizures often cause drowsiness, and can effectively treat only
	about 80 percent of the approximately 100,000 U.S. children
	affected by these seizures, Hosford says.

	   In their study, the Durham researchers determined that specially
	bred, epilepsy-prone mice, called lethargic mice, have seizures
	that closely resemble absence seizures in humans.  During the
	seizures, the brains of these mice produced electrical signals
	similar to those seen in humans experiencing absence seizures.

	   Hosford's team then used the lethargic mice to test a theory,
	proposed last year by researchers in England, linking absence
	seizures to the actions of GABA[B] receptors, which help transmit
	signals from one nerve cell to another.  The Durham scientists
	found that the activity of these receptors directly influenced
	seizure frequency: compounds designed to block the activity of
	GABA[B] receptors greatly reduced the number of seizures in the
	lethargic mice, while a compound designed to enhance the activity
	of GABA[B] receptors increased the number of seizures.

	   Close examination of tissue samples revealed that the brains
	of the lethargic mice contained 26 percent more GABA[B] receptors
	than the brains of normal mice.  Electrical tests confirmed that
	overall GABA[B] receptor activity was greater in the epileptic
	mice.

	   Hosford hopes that such research will `lead to a more tailored
	therapy designed to attack the mechanism of petit mal and perhaps
	treat the seizures without producing some of the more unfortunate
	side effects' caused by current drugs."

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Rich Young                             | Phone: (716) 253-7176
Eastman Kodak Company                  | FAX: (716) 253-7254
Clinical Products Division             | Internet: young@serum.kodak.com
100 Carlson Road                       |
Rochester, New York, USA   14653-9122  | These are MY opinions, not Kodak's!!!
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