Researchers have identified a potential new approach to better controlling epileptic seizures.

Lin Mei, professor and chair of the Department of Neurosciences at the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, who led the new study in mouse models, said the team found a new chemical reaction that could help control epileptic seizures.

Their findings were recently published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder in which abnormal brain activity causes seizures or periods of unusual behavior, sensations and sometimes loss of awareness.

A human brain contains about 86 billion nerve cells, also known as neurons. Eighty percent of them — known as excitatory neurons — send messages to bundles of nerves that control muscles, typically calling on them to do something. In a healthy brain, activity that excitatory neurons inspire is managed by the remaining 20% of nerve cells, called inhibitory neurons.

«This balance between excitatory and inhibitory neurons is absolutely important for everything that we do,» Mei said. «When the balance is tilted, so that excitatory neurons are super active, there will be a problem. It’s highly likely there will be epilepsy.»

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