Title
Update on Cysticercosis Epileptogenesis: the Role of the Hippocampus
Date Issued
01 January 2016
Access level
open access
Resource Type
review
Author(s)
Publisher(s)
Current Medicine Group LLC 1
Abstract
Neurocysticercosis (NCC) is the most common helminthic infection of the nervous system and a frequent cause of reactive seizures and epilepsy worldwide. In many cases, multiple episodes of focal seizures related to an identifiable parenchymal brain cyst (and likely attributable to local damage) continue for years after the cyst resolves. However, cases where seizure semiology, interictal EEG abnormalities, and parasites location do not correlate raise concerns about the causal relationship between NCC and either reactive seizures or epilepsy, as well as the epileptogenic potential of parasites. Neurosurgical series of patients with intractable epilepsy and cross-sectional population-based studies have shown a robust association between NCC and hippocampal sclerosis (HS), which might contribute to the above-referred inconsistencies. Current information does not allow to define whether in patients with NCC, HS could result from recurrent seizure activity from a local or distant focus or from chronic recurrent inflammation. In either case, HS may become the pathological substrate of subsequent mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE). Longitudinal clinical- and population-based cohort studies are needed to evaluate the causal relationship between NCC and HS and to characterize this association with the occurrence of MTLE. If a cause-and-effect relationship between NCC and HS is demonstrated, NCC patients could be assessed to examine neuronal mechanisms of hippocampal epileptogenesis in comparison with animal models, to identify biomarkers of hippocampal epileptogenesis, and to develop novel interventions to prevent epilepsy in NCC and perhaps in other forms of acquired epilepsy.
Start page
1
End page
7
Volume
16
Issue
1
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Neurología clínica
Parasitología
Subjects
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-84949595765
PubMed ID
Source
Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports
ISSN of the container
15284042
Sponsor(s)
This study was partially supported by Universidad Espíritu Santo—Ecuador, Guayaquil, Ecuador. H.H. Garcia is supported by a Wellcome Trust International Senior Fellowship in Public Health and Tropical Medicine.
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke R37NS033310
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus