Search

The universal epileptogenic cascade remains unknown, and most modern treatments focus on the reduction of symptoms and the prevention of seizure recurrence. Experimental studies have demonstrated that herbal medicines may act as antiepileptogenic agents. In this study, the possibilities of plants with antiepileptic properties were reviewed and discussed on their structures and related mechanism of actions. This work constituted a literature review of medicinal plants showing antiepileptic properties by literature searching in Science Direct, PubMed and Wiley Online Library. The keywords of search included epilepsy, antiepileptogenesis, antiepilepsy, natural compounds, extract, herbal medicines and medicinal plants in epilepsy treatment. Only articles published in English were reviewed. Mechanism of action of the natural plants were described according to experimental studies. From the databases, we found 135 natural plants with antiepileptic properties. In this review, the highly studied natural plants were selected. These included Acorus calamus, Bacopa monnieri, Boerhaavia diffusa, Curcuma longa, Gastrodia elata, Ginseng, Uncaria rhynchophylla, Pinellia ternatae, Withania somnifera, Magnolia bark and Resveratrol-related products. From the evidences, natural products may potentially be developed as antiepileptic or antiepileptogenic agents. However, several issues in drug development should be considered such as safety, formulations, pharmacokinetic characteristics and possible interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Recent preclinical studies demonstrated the potential antiepileptogenic effect of curcumin. Its molecular pathways in modulating epileptogenesis remain unclear. Objectives: This study investigated the epileptogenic processes induced by kainic acid (KA) and to investigate the antiepileptogenic pathways associated with curcumin therapy. Methods: A single dose of KA 10 mg/kg was used to induce a convulsive status epilepticus in female Wistar rats. After one week of curcumin treatment, gene expression profiling by using microarray was conducted on hippocampal tissues. A set of differential expression changes was determined based on criteria of dual fold change in either direction and p < 0.05, whereas gene annotation and pathway analysis had been performed using Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery software. Results: A number of genes significantly altered in expression during KAinduced epileptogenesis. Inflammation and immune response were the prominent overexpressed processes induced by KA. Genes of cell surface molecule (CD74), cytokines and immune response related genes (IL18, IFNGR1, C3, RT1-BA) were significantly up-regulated. Changes of genes related to cell death and gliosis (NCSTN, CTSH) were also observed in KA-induced epileptogenesis. This study revealed that curcumin modulated the epileptogenic process by up-regulating genes related to antiinflammatory cytokines (IL10RB, CXCL16, and CXCL17) and protecting against cell loss by up-regulating NCSTN. It was also likely to exert neuroprotective effects through the up-regulation of CX3CL1 and CXCL16. Conclusion: This study provides novel insights into the mechanisms of curcumin in epileptic brain, which form the basis for future studies looking into its molecular pathway as an antiepileptogenic agent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To identify the level of malnutrition and complications observed in Malaysia. Methods: A prospective, observational study was conducted with the objectives of identifying the degree of malnutrition, complications and the need for nutritional support in elective surgical patients. Collection of data was performed in local tertiary hospitals using a Patient Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG - SGA) nutritional screening tool and medical records. Results: A total of 50 patients electively admitted for surgery were included. The results demonstrated that there was a significant increase in malnourished patients post-surgery compared to pre-surgery (p = 0.0001). Most interesting was the significant number of complications observed post-surgery compared to pre-surgery (p = 0.035) which was associated to the poor level of nutrition. The most common type of complications noted post-surgery were nosocomial infection, wound infection and readmission. Conclusion: Malnutrition is prevalent pre- and post-operatively in Malaysia. Therefore, focus on the outcome of these malnourished patients should be performed to reduce complications associated with poor nutrition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The aim was to evaluate the effects of test order in behavioral performance of Wistar rats in cognitive performance tasks. Materials and Methods: The rats were tested with both object recognition and object location tasks in different test orders with an inter-test interval of 1-day. Results: An open field box sized 60 × 60 × 40 cm was associated with better experimental outcome compared with box sized 100 × 100 × 50 cm. Test order has insignificant effects on the exploration activity of rats with the 1-day inter-test interval. Conclusion: Test order of the cognitive performance tasks with inter-test interval of 1-day did not influence the performance of Wistar rats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Epilepsy is one of the most common chronic disorders affecting individuals of all ages. A greater understanding of pathogenesis in epilepsy will likely provide the basis fundamental for development of new antiepileptic therapies that aim to prevent the epileptogenesis process or modify the progression of epilepsy in addition to treatment of epilepsy symptomatically. Therefore, several investigations have embarked on advancing knowledge of the mechanism underlying epileptogenesis, understanding in mechanism of pharmacoresistance and discovering antiepileptogenic or disease-modifying therapy. Animal models play a crucial and significant role in providing additional insight into mechanism of epileptogenesis. With the help of these models, epileptogenesis process has been demonstrated to be involved in various molecular and biological pathways or processes. Hence, this article will discuss the known and postulated mechanisms of epileptogenesis and challenges in using the animal models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This cross-sectional study aimed to investigate the resilience levels and mental health outcomes among university students, specifically those in the science and non-science fields. Mental well-being varies widely among individuals, particularly among university students. Thus, the aim of this study was to examine and compare the level of depression, anxiety, and stress betweenundergraduate students of the Faculty of Bio-Resources and Food Industry (FBIM) and Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities (FSSG) from Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA), Terengganu, Malaysia, as well as to identify the correlations between resilience and their mental health status., Materials and Methods: This study was conducted among FBIM and FSSG students of UniSZA starting from March 18, 2024, to May 31, 2024. A total of 329 students were assessed for this purpose. All participants answered questionnaires that were prepared based on the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) and the Connor and Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) through a Google Form (Google Inc., Mountain View, CA).  Results: The Pearson's chi-square test, Mann-Whitney U test, and Kruskal-Wallis H test were used to analyze the data in this study. This study showed that the students from FBIM had poorer mental health than those from the FSSG (p<0.001). The results revealed statistically significant differences between the levels of depression, anxiety, and stress between students of the two faculties. Moreover, the research correlated the level of depression, anxiety, and stress with the resilience level to examine how individuals cope with psychological challenges., Conclusion: This outcome might be connected to students' resilience to overcome mental health issues. This research could potentially assist students in identifying their mental health status, as some may not be aware of their underlying brain conditions., Competing Interests: Human subjects: Consent was obtained or waived by all participants in this study. UniSZA Human Research Ethics Committee (UHREC) issued approval (UniSZA/UHREC/2024/616). Animal subjects: All authors have confirmed that this study did not involve animal subjects or tissue. Conflicts of interest: In compliance with the ICMJE uniform disclosure form, all authors declare the following: Payment/services info: All authors have declared that no financial support was received from any organization for the submitted work. Financial relationships: All authors have declared that they have no financial relationships at present or within the previous three years with any organizations that might have an interest in the submitted work. Other relationships: All authors have declared that there are no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work., (Copyright © 2024, Suhaimi et al.)

Epilepsy is one of the most common chronic disorders affecting individuals of all ages. A greater understanding of pathogenesis in epilepsy will likely provide the basis fundamental for development of new antiepileptic therapies that aim to prevent the epileptogenesis process or modify the progression of epilepsy in addition to treatment of epilepsy symptomatically. Therefore, several investigations have embarked on advancing knowledge of the mechanism underlying epileptogenesis, understanding in mechanism of pharmacoresistance and discovering antiepileptogenic or disease-modifying therapy. Animal models play a crucial and significant role in providing additional insight into mechanism of epileptogenesis. With the help of these models, epileptogenesis process has been demonstrated to be involved in various molecular and biological pathways or processes. Hence, this article will discuss the known and postulated mechanisms of epileptogenesis and challenges in using the animal models.