title: Exploring novel AEDs from drugs used for treatment of non-epileptic disorders.
abstract: Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disease. Although many anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) have been developed for clinical use, they have no effect on 20-30% of patients and do not generally prevent epileptogenesis. Because of the long development cycle for new AEDs and the high cost, increasing efforts are being made to find anti-epileptic effects among drugs that are already listed for the treatment of other diseases and repurpose them as potential anti-epileptic treatments. Here, we review the progress that has been made in this field as a result of animal and clinical trials of drugs such as rapamycin, everolimus, losartan, celecoxib, bumetanide and other non-epileptic drugs. These drugs can prevent the epileptogenesis, reduce the epileptic pathological changes, and even be used to treat intractable epilepsy. Their mechanisms of action are completely different from those of existing AEDs, prompting researchers to change their perspectives in the search for new AEDs.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Neurology , The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University , Chongqing , China.
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Du
authors.affiliation: a Department of Neurology , The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University , Chongqing , China.
authors.forename: Fangshuo
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: a Department of Neurology , The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University , Chongqing , China.
authors.forename: Xuenfeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000927:Anticonvulsants / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D000927:Anticonvulsants
keywords: Clinical trials; animals; anti-epileptic drugs; bumetanide; celecoxib; drug interactions; everolimus; losartan; rapamycin; refractory epilepsy