Neuropeptide Y: potential role in recurrent developmental seizures.
Seizures induce profound plastic changes in the brain, including altered expression of neuropeptide Y (NPY) and its receptors. Here, I discuss a potential role of NPY plasticity in the developmental brain: in a rat model of febrile seizures (FS), the most common type of seizures in infants and young children, NPY expression was up-regulated in hippocampus after experimentally induced FS. Interestingly, NPY up-regulation was associated with an increased seizure threshold for additional (recurrent) FS, and this effect was abolished when an antagonist against NPY receptor type 2 was applied. These findings suggest that inhibitory actions of NPY, released after seizures, exert a protective effect that reduces the risk of seizure recurrence in the developing brain.
Dubé
Celine
C
Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology, ZOT 1275, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, United States. cdube@uci.edu
D000818:Animals; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006801:Humans; D009478:Neuropeptide Y / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D012008:Recurrence; D003294:Seizures, Febrile / Q000503:physiopathology*
D009478:Neuropeptide Y