role of connexins in epilepsy

Epilepsy is a common disorder of the central nervous system (CNS), the highprevalence of epilepsy in the world has affected the quality of life of patients dueto the symptoms of frequent seizures and causes death in patients. Despitesignificant therapeutic advances in epilepsy, controlling the attacks of thisdisease has not yielded favorable results. Epilepsy can occur due to geneticreasons and following brain damage such as infection, tumor, injury and stroke.Therefore, understanding the mechanisms of this disease has opened newapproaches for the treatment and prevention of epilepsy. It is important to studyand investigate connexons as an important part of the sub-unit of gap junctions,which is responsible for the transmission of electrical activities (abnormal andnormal) on a wide level in the brain and causes the process of epilepsy.Search MethodsIn the present study, by searching the reliable scientific databases GoogleScholar, PubMed, Elsevier, and Magiran and Sid databases by searching thekeywords connexin, epilepsy, gap junctions, hippocampus and seizures withemphasis on physiological and pathophysiological mechanisms and Withouttime limit, studies conducted on animal models and clinical trials were reviewed.ResultsIn this study, ۲۰ related studies were examined and the results of our searchshowed that gap junctions form the cytoplasmic connection of each cell with theadjacent cell, which is composed of protein subunits called connexin. Neurons,astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, and microglial cells express an array of Cxs thatare important for cell-cell communication and the release of metabolites, ions,neurotransmitters, and gliotransmitters. In the hippocampus region of thebrain, there is an extensive network of these gap junctions. The cerebralhippocampus is the main part of the limbic system and plays an important rolein epilepsy. Epilepsy patients are disturbed in this area, so that the changes inthe expression of connexins affect gap junctions and cause abnormal electricalactivity to a large extent and the release of electrical discharge in hippocampallevel and eventually repeated seizures and lead to completing the process ofepilepsy. Cxs contribute not only to the normal function of the CNS but also tothe pathological progression of several diseases such as cancer and neurologicaldiseases. There are types of connexins, ۱۱ connexins are expressed in the centralnervous system. Under neurological conditions such as epilepsy, microglia arerapidly activated, release pro-inflammatory cytokines, and adopt amoebicmorphology And they express a large number of surface receptors. Cx۲۹, Cx۳۲,Cx۴۵ and Cx۴۷ connexins are present in oligodendrocytes and Cx۳۲, Cx۳۶ andCx۴۳ connexins are present in microglia, and the expression of Cx۳۲, Cx۳۶ andCx۴۳ connexins was shown to increase in epilepsy.ConclusionThis study shows that connexins play a role in epilepsy and designing drugs thatchange their expression can be effective in prevention and treatment.

کلیدواژه ها:

Connexin ، epilepsy ، gap junctions ، seizures ، hippocampus