Clinical trial NCT05269901: Association Between Ferroptosis and Epilepsy
Official title: Association Between GPX4 Dependent Ferroptosis Pathway and Epilepsy in School-aged Children
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Conditions: Epilepsy
Keywords: school-aged children
ferroptosis
epilepsy
GPX4
Lead sponsor: Affiliated Hospital of Jiangnan University
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2022-03-08
Enrollment: 40
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 6
Maximum age (years): 12
Standard ages: CHILD
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Observational model: CASE_CONTROL
Time perspective: CROSS_SECTIONAL
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: school-aged children who admitted to our hospital from Jan 20, 2021 to Jan 1, 2022

Brief summary: Epilepsy is one of the most common neurologic disorders seen in children, often characterized by recurring seizures. Nearly 10.5 million children worldwide are estimated to have active epilepsy. Children with epilepsy are more likely to have developmental health and developmental comorbidities such as depression, anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, learning disabilities, and developmental delay compared to children without epilepsy. Status epilepticus (SE) is the most common life-threatening emergency neurological emergency in children and leads to hippocampal neuronal cell death. The animal model proved SE-induced neuronal cell death in hippocampal CA1 and CA3 regions. Classical drugs like carbamazepine or phenytoin often cause behavioral problems and side effects such as unsteady gait, depression, and irritability. In addition, classical medicine did not protect cognitive function and preferred to drive drug-resistant. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a novel therapy to treat epilepsy. Ferroptosis is a new type of cell death, usually accompanied by a large amount of iron accumulation and lipid peroxidation. It is widely accepted that glutamate-mediated neuronal hyperexcitation plays a causative role in eliciting seizures, and cystine/glutamate antiporter inhibition induces ferroptosis. Hence, investigators hypothesize GPX4 dependent ferroptosis pathway may play a key role in eliciting seizures.

Detailed description: To investigate the possible association between GPX4 dependent ferroptosis pathway and epilepsy. Investigators first obtained gene expression of GSE25453 from GEO (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo), which contained ten medial temporal lobe epilepsy and ten adjacent non-seizure region tissues. Then, investigators further the possible association between GPX4 dependent ferroptosis pathway and epilepsy in school-aged children. Investigators obtained peripheral blood from 20 newly diagnosed untreated school-aged children (6 -12 years) and 20 age-matched healthy controls. Three glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4）dependent ferroptosis pathway biomarkers were investigated: Solute Carrier Family 7 Member 11（SLC7A11), GPX4, tumor protein 53 (P53). Western blot and Rt-qPCR were used to investigate the possible changes in these three biomarkers.

Eligibility criteria: Seizure group

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Aged between 6 and 12 years old
2. Newly diagnosed untreated epilepsy

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Treated with medicine or another therapy
2. Had history of cancer diseases
3. Had history of endocrine diseases

Healthy control group

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Aged between 6 and 12 years old

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Had history of epilepsy
2. Had history of cancer diseases
3. Had history of endocrine diseases

Primary outcomes:
measure: Rt-qPCR
timeFrame: Participants' blood samples were collected when enrolled in this study, and the results of different relative mRNA expression (GPX4, SLC7A11, P53) on two groups would be reported through study completion, an average of 1 year.
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Western blot
timeFrame: Participants' blood samples were collected when enrolled in this study, and the results of different relative protein expressions (GPX4, SLC7A11, TP53) on two groups would be reported through study completion, an average of 1 year.
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Wuxi
country: China
facility: Affiliated Hospital of JiangNan University, Department of Pediatrics
state: Jiangsu
Study officials:
affiliation: Affiliated Hospital of JiangNan University, department of pediatrics
name: YueYing Liu
role: STUDY_DIRECTOR
References: