In a study published in Brain Research, biophysicists from the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Biophysics (ITEB) of the Russian Academy of Sciences and MIPT have shown that drug-induced activation of the endocannabinoid system of the brain leads to reduced or completely suppressed epileptic activity in test animals.
Epilepsy is one of the most common chronic neurological disorders affecting humans. It is characterized by recurrent convulsive seizures. Depending on which part of the brain is affected by the pathology, various types of epilepsy are identified. If seizures originate in the temporal lobe of the brain, temporal lobe epilepsy is diagnosed. Along with their colleagues from MIPT, researchers from the Laboratory of Systemic Organization of Neurons at ITEB discovered an efficient way of protecting the temporal lobe from pathological changes that arise as epilepsy progresses.