Matrix metalloproteinase 9 and epileptogenesis - the crucial role of the enzyme and strategies to prevent the disease development.

Epileptogenesis is the process responsible for converting normal brain into an epileptic. It may be triggered by an event such as brain injury or status epilepticus (SE). The main mechanisms responsible include neuroinflammation and blood-brain barrier (BBB) disruption, pathologic neuronal networks' reorganisation and aberrant synaptic plasticity. Accumulating amount of evidence from animal models and epileptic patients strongly suggest that matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9) is potentially one of the key executors of the processes of epileptogenesis. MMP-9 by affecting synaptic plasticity is suggested to enable epileptic remodelling of the brain circuitry. MMP-9's dependent cleavage of BBB followed by inflammatory cell infiltration into the brain contributes to the neuroinflamation component of epileptogenesis. The goal of this review was to analyse all possible ways MMP-9 may be involved in epileptogenesis and consider MMP-9 inhibition as potential therapeutic strategy.