2012年11月21日 讯 /生物谷BIOON/ --近日，研究人员从耐药性癫痫重症患儿所使用的特定饮食中发现一种新的药物，该药物或许是治疗癫痫的新方法，相关研究结果发表在杂志Neuropharmacology上。
皇家霍洛威学院科学家与伦敦大学学院（University College London）合作，确定了某种脂肪酸具有强大的抗癫痫作用，它可以帮助控制儿童和成人的癫痫发作。这一发现可能代替现有的生酮饮食，生酮饮食往往给耐药性癫痫儿童带来严重副作用。
高脂肪、低碳水化合物的饮食模仿机体饥饿状态，迫使身体燃烧脂肪，而不是碳水化合物。这种饮食结构往往是有效的，但它也引来了不少批评，因为其显著副作用，如可能导致便秘，低血糖，生长迟缓和骨折。通过针对脂肪酸的生酮饮食虽然能有效控制癫痫，但研究人员希望他们可以开发出药丸可以控制癫痫，同时又不会带来副作用。
皇家霍洛威学院生物医学科学中心的教授Robin Williams说：这是一个重要的突破，我们已经确定中链脂肪酸家族有安全之治疗癫痫的潜力。这项研究测试了生酮饮食中一系列脂肪酸对癫痫的治疗作用。
伦敦大学学院神经学研究所Matthew Walker教授说：癫痫影响超过50亿人，是全球约三分之一的癫痫患者没有得到充分治疗。这一发现提供了一个全新的方法来治疗耐药性癫痫儿童和成人。（生物谷：Bioon.com）
doi:10.1016/j.neuropharm.2012.11.004
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Seizure control by ketogenic diet-associated medium chain fatty acids
Pishan Changa, Nicole Terbacha, Nick Plantb, et al.
The medium chain triglyceride (MCT) ketogenic diet is used extensively for treating refractory childhood epilepsy. This diet increases the plasma levels of medium straight chain fatty acids. A role for these and related fatty acids in seizure control has not been established. We compared the potency of an established epilepsy treatment, Valproate (VPA), with a range of MCT diet-associated fatty acids (and related branched compounds), using in vitro seizure and in vivo epilepsy models, and assessed side effect potential in vitro for one aspect of teratogenicity, for liver toxicology and in vivo for sedation, and for a neuroprotective effect. We identify specific medium chain fatty acids (both prescribed in the MCT diet, and related compounds branched on the fourth carbon) provide significantly enhanced in vitro seizure control compared to VPA. The activity of these compounds on seizure control is independent of histone deacetylase inhibitory activity (associated with the teratogenicity of VPA), and does not correlate with liver cell toxicity. In vivo, these compounds were more potent in epilepsy control (perforant pathway stimulation induced status epilepticus), showed less sedation and enhanced neuroprotection compared to VPA. Our data therefore implicates medium chain fatty acids in the mechanism of the MCT ketogenic diet, and highlights a related new family of compounds that are more potent than VPA in seizure control with a reduced potential for side effects.
