Recently, Hu Shuntong, a Ph.D. student of 2014 in CSU, published a cover paper “SomaticDepdc5deletion recapitulates electroclinical features of human focal cortical dysplasia type IIA” inAnnals of Neurology(IF=10.244), an authoritative journal in Neurology, with the Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University as the first institution. This student is in joint cultivation of the overseas tutor of the “Wisdom Gathering and Talents Cultivation Program” and Professor Song Zhi from the Department of Neurology of the Third Xiangya Hospital.

As reported, epilepsy, also called “seizure disorders” and “seizures”, is a chronic disease that causes transient brain dysfunction. It is sudden and unpredictable and is the second most common disease in neurology. In China, there are about 9 million epilepsy patients, about 20% to 30% of which are subject to refractory epilepsy, a disease usually giving no response to treatments. The most common cause is focal cortical dysplasia (FCD). The old FCD animal models are mostly whole brain models and do not show the focal characteristics.

This study, using CRISPR gene editing and intrauterine electrotransfection, inducesDepdc5mutation in the local neurons of fetal rat cortex and simulates in the rats the typical pathological and clinical electrophysiological changes of human FCD, especially the focal seizures. This model has simulated the characteristics of FCD focal seizures for the first time in the world, providing a new path for studying the mechanism of refractory epilepsy and developing new precision antiepileptic drugs.

This study is only a phased achievement and Hu Shuntong is still conducting his work on this subject in the laboratory of the University of Michigan, USA.

Source: The Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University