The world's largest single-cell study of epilepsy published

NRU senior Researcher Lars Pinborg has co-authored the paper 'Identification of epilepsy-associated neuronal subtypes and gene expression underlying epileptogenesis' which has recently been published in Nature Communications. The paper identifies, for the first time in the world, dysfunctional neuronal subtypes underlying seizure activity in the human brain by means of single-nucleus transcriptomics analysis of >110,000 neuronal transcriptomes derived from temporal cortex samples of multiple temporal lobe epilepsy and non-epileptic subjects. In conclusion, the paper finds large-scale and complex changes in the neuronal transcriptomes of epileptic patients, where some subtypes showed a dramatic epilepsy-driven dysregulation of gene expression, whereas other subtypes were largely spared. Based on the results, the authors conclude that it is likely that antiepileptic therapies should take into consideration the interplay between subtypes and their relationship in circuits for effective treatment and seizure relief.

Press release from University of Copenhagen is available here.