Postdoctoral researcher, Olivia Hoffman, Ph.D., and Professor, Avtar Roopra, Ph.D., found that brief treatment with a drug typically prescribed for arthritis enduringly halts seizures in epileptic mice long after treatment is stopped. The drug, called Tofacitinib, can also restore short-term and working memory functionality that is lost in epileptic mice.
To investigate the underlying causes of epilepsy, Hoffman and co-authors sifted through thousands of genes expressed in mice with and without epilepsy. They found a protein, called STAT3, that is a key to a cell signaling pathway called JAK, at the activity center of epileptic mouse brains. Tofacitinib is a JAK-inhibitor, and study trials showed that with just 2 weeks of drug treatment, mice were able to stay seizure-free for at least two months after the last dose and regain aspects of memory.
Hoffman and Roopra’s results indicate that the inhibition of JAK/STAT3 signaling via Tofacitinib in chronic epilepsy is a potential treatment for long lasting control of seizures in epilepsy. The next steps towards human patient trials await NIH review of new studies, which have been paused indefinitely with funding changes at the agency. For now, Hoffman and Roopra are focused on identifying which types of brain cells are shifted back to normal. A patent has been filed for the use of the drug in epilepsy.
For more information on the study, you can read the press release here. The research paper can be found here.