Scientists explain epilepsy enigma

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2008

PARIS (AFP) — Researchers in the United States said on Sunday they had found the key to a decades-old riddle over epileptic fits, helping to advance the quest for new treatments for this disabling condition.

Experiments in the last century found that by breathing carbon dioxide (CO2), an epileptic patient boosted acid levels in the brain and could terminate a fit, although the molecular switch for achieving this was veiled in mystery.

In experiments on mice, scientists from the University of Iowa and the Veterans Affairs Iowa City Health Care System, reporting in a specialist journal, believe they have found the switch.

A channel known as ASIC1a, located on the surface of brain cells, opens up in response to higher acid levels and admits charged atoms known...