Epilepsy in Neurodegenerative Diseases: Related Drugs and Molecular Pathways

Abstract

Epilepsy is a chronic disease of the central nervous system characterized by an electrical imbalance in neurons. It is the second most prevalent neurological disease, with 50 million people affected around the world, and 30% of all epilepsies do not respond to available treatments. Currently, the main hypothesis about the molecular processes that trigger epileptic seizures and promote the neurotoxic effects that lead to cell death focuses on the exacerbation of the glutamate pathway and the massive influx of Ca2+ into neurons by different factors. However, other mechanisms have been proposed, and most of them have also been described in other neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, or multiple sclerosis. Interestingly, and mainly because of these common molecular links and the lack of effective treatments for these diseases, some antiseizure drugs have been investigated to evaluate their therapeutic potential in these pathologies. Therefore, in this review, we thoroughly investigate the common molecular pathways between epilepsy and the major neurodegenerative diseases, examine the incidence of epilepsy in these populations, and explore the use of current and innovative antiseizure drugs in the treatment of refractory epilepsy and other neurodegenerative diseases.