Epilepsy and neurodevelopmental disorders share mechanisms that may inspire new therapies

Ana Luisa Carvalho

Project awarded in collaboration with the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia

  • PROJECT LEADER

    Ana Luisa Carvalho

  • HOST ORGANIZATION, COUNTRY

    Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology, University of Coimbra, Portugal

  • DESCRIPTION

    Today, almost half of all people with intellectual disabilities suffer from epilepsy. In the case of individuals with schizophrenia, the risk of having convulsions doubles that of the rest of the population.

    Epilepsy and neurodevelopmental disorders share common elements, such as genetic factors. This means that some of the mechanisms that underly these diseases are the same and interrelate them.

    For example, people suffering from these disorders, including schizophrenia, have a mutation in a gene that codes for a protein which regulates neuronal excitability and activation through the potassium channels. The aim of this project is to investigate these common mechanism pathways as targets for the development of more effective treatments.

  • CONSORTIUM
    (PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR, ORGANIZATION, COUNTRY)

    Joana Ferreira, IINS - University of Bordeaux, France

  • PROJECT TITLE

    Potassium channel dysfunction in models of neurodevelopmental disorders (MStar)

  • BUDGET

    782.000 €