Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
Department of Chemistry and Institute of Nuclear Medicine, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
Epilepsia. 2017 Jul;58 Suppl 3:11-19. doi: 10.1111/epi.13778.
Epilepsy can be a devastating disorder. In addition to debilitating seizures, epilepsy can cause cognitive and emotional problems with reduced quality of life. Therefore, the major aim is to prevent the disorder in the first place: identify, detect, and reverse the processes responsible for its onset, and monitor and treat its progression. Epilepsy often occurs following a latent period of months to years (epileptogenesis) as a consequence of a brain insult, such as head trauma, stroke, or status epilepticus. Although this latent period clearly represents a therapeutic window, we are not able to stratify patients at risk for long-term epilepsy, which is prerequisite for preventative clinical trials. Moreover, because of the length of the latent period, an early biomarker for treatment response would be of high value. Finally, mechanistic biomarkers of epileptogenesis may provide more profound insight in the process of disease development.
癫痫是一种破坏性疾病。除了使人虚弱的癫痫发作外，癫痫还会导致认知和情绪问题，降低生活质量。因此，主要目标是首先预防这种疾病：识别、检测和逆转导致其发作的过程，并监测和治疗其进展。癫痫通常在数月至数年的潜伏期后（癫痫发生）发生，是由于大脑损伤引起的，如头部创伤、中风或癫痫持续状态。尽管这段潜伏期显然是一个治疗窗口，但我们无法对长期癫痫风险患者进行分层，这是预防性临床试验的前提。此外，由于潜伏期较长，治疗反应的早期生物标志物将具有很高的价值。最后，癫痫发生的机制生物标志物可能为疾病发展过程提供更深入的了解。
