Treatment during a vulnerable developmental period rescues a genetic epilepsy

There is a greater incidence of epilepsy during the first few years of life as neurodevelopmental processes are still underway. The current strategy is to administer anti-epileptic drugs after seizures occur. The authors of a recent paper investigated whether administration of bumetanide – a diuretic that blocks the NKCC1 cation-chloride co-transporter and dampens down depolarization – would be effective as an anti-epileptogenic agent in a mouse model of mutated Kv7 K+ channels. Transient administration of bumetanide was able to correct structural and functional changes in the hippocampus in the mutant mice. This study raises the possibility of bumetanide as an anti-epileptogenic agent.

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