Fruit fly study reveals key brain proteins that help prevent seizures

One in ten people will have at least one seizure in their life, but effective treatments for seizures remain very limited, in part due to incomplete understanding of the brain mechanisms involved. Now, research in fruit flies has uncovered a role for two specific brain proteins that are necessary during brain development to prevent seizures.

The two proteins, Imp and Sdc, are found in the developing brains of both flies and mammals, and are involved in the growth and development of neurons and brain circuits.

A reduction of either protein during development makes flies prone to seizures without otherwise affecting their ability to move, the researchers found. Importantly, if Imp is reduced, restoring Sdc helps flies recover from seizures more than three times faster. This suggests that these proteins could be a valuable target for future therapies.

For people with seizures caused by a similar mechanism, "we hope that this knowledge might contribute to quicker diagnoses and treatment plans," says Paula Roy, PhD, postdoctoral researcher in neurobiology at University of Utah Health and first author on the study. "More broadly, understanding specific seizure mechanisms will lead to better, more efficient therapeutic regimens."

The results are published in eNeuro.

The research was supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (T32HD007491), the National Human Genome Research Institute (T32HG008962), the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (R56AI170857 and R01AI170857), and the University of Utah. Content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.