Role of glutamate excitotoxicity and glutamate transporter EAAT2 in epilepsy: Opportunities for novel therapeutics development.

ABSTRACT: Epilepsy is a complex neurological syndrome characterized by seizures resulting from neuronal hyperexcitability and sudden and synchronized bursts of electrical discharges. Impaired astrocyte function that results in glutamate excitotoxicity has been recognized to play a key role in the pathogenesis of epilepsy. While there are 26 drugs marketed as anti-epileptic drugs no current treatments are disease modifying as they only suppress seizures rather than the development and progression of epilepsy. Excitatory amino acid transporters (EAATs) are critical for maintaining low extracellular glutamate concentrations and preventing excitotoxicity. When extracellular glutamate concentrations rise to abnormal levels, glutamate receptor overactivation and the subsequent excessive influx of calcium

SUBMITTER: Green JL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8605998 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature