Epileptic seizures could become a thing of the past. New research from UCSC, Berkeley, and UCSF combined gene therapy with optogenetics to halt seizure-like activity in neurons with positive results.

During the study, which took several weeks, scientists created an artificial brain environment with living cell matter. They used a harmless virus to deliver light-sensitive genes to the cell and controlled its neural behavior with light pulses.

“This was a very unique collaboration to solve an incredibly complex research problem,” Teodorescu said. “The fact that we actually accomplished this feat shows how much farther we can reach when we bring the strengths of our institutions together,” said Mircea Teodorescu, PhD, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at UCSC and co-senior author of the study. Teodorescu designed a remote-control system to deliver light and record information in the study.

Using optogenetics, or light, to control cell activity in living things is a less invasive method than surgery for epilepsy treatment. And though the practical applications for the study are still a ways away, research results show promise.

“We’ll be able to give people much more subtle, effective control over their seizures while saving them from such an invasive surgery,”  said Edward Chang MD, chair of Neurological Surgery at UCSF and a member of the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences.

Reference: https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2024/11/428896/how-optogenetics-can-put-brakes-epilepsy-seizures