The challenge and promise of anti-epileptic therapy development in animal models.

Translation of successful target and compound validation studies into clinically effective therapies is a major challenge, with potential for costly clinical trial failures. This situation holds true for the epilepsies-complex diseases with different causes and symptoms. Although the availability of predictive animal models has led to the development of effective antiseizure therapies that are routinely used in clinical practice, showing that translation can be successful, several important unmet therapeutic needs still exist. Available treatments do not fully control seizures in a third of patients with epilepsy, and produce substantial side-effects. No treatment can prevent the development of epilepsy in at-risk patients or cure patients with epilepsy. And no specific treatment for epilepsy-associated comorbidities exists. To meet these demands, a redesign of translational approaches is urgently needed.
Competing Interests: Declaration of interests JE has a patent pending for a magnetonanoparticle for functional MRI; JE has received no fees to date. (WO2009/123734A1 and WO2009/123735A1). ASG has received royalties from Morgan & Claypool Publishers and John Libbey Eurotext, and consultancy honorarium from Viropharma. FEJ has received investigator-initiated grant support from Eisai Pharma and Lundbeck Pharma. SLM has received consultancy honorarium from Lundbeck and UCB Pharma. TO’B has received research funding from Sanofi-Aventis, UCB, SciGen, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, and Janssen-Cilag, and speakers’ honoraria from Sanofi-Aventis, UCB, SciGen, GlaxoSmithKline, and Janssen-Cilag. JAF is the president of The Epilepsy Study Consortium, a non-profit organisation; New York University (NYU) receives a fixed amount from the Epilepsy Study Consortium towards her salary. The money is for work by JAF on behalf of The Epilepsy Study Consortium, for consulting and clinical trial-related activities. She receives no personal income for these activities. Within the past year, The Epilepsy Study Consortium received payments for research services from: Acorda, Eisai Medical Research, GlaxoSmithKline, Impax, Johnson & Johnson, Mapp Pharmaceuticals, Marinus, Novartis, Lundbeck, Pfizer, Sepracor, Sunovion, SK Life Science, Supernus Pharmaceuticals, UCB/Schwarz Pharma, Upsher Smith, Vertex. JAF is an investigator at NYU on studies for Eisai Medical Research, LCGH, Impax, Mapp Pharmaceuticals, Novartis, UCB/Schwarz Pharma, Upsher Smith, and Vertex. MS, ARB-K, SLM, AP, and KSW declare no competing interests.
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