Merab Kokaia

TL;DR: The present data show that single and intermittent, brief seizures induce both apoptotic death and proliferation of dentate gyrus neurons, and it is hypothesized that these processes, occurring early during epileptogenesis, are primary events in the development of hippocampal pathology in animals and possibly also in patients suffering from temporal lobe epilepsy.

TL;DR: Insight into the regulation and role of the neurotrophins after brain insults should increase the understanding of pathophysiological mechanisms in epileptogenesis and cell death, and could lead to new therapeutic strategies.

TL;DR: It is shown that seizures induced by hippocampal kindling lead to a rapid, transient increase of trkB mRNA and protein in the hippocampus, suggesting that BDNF and its receptor may play a local role within the hippocampus in kindling-associated neural plasticity and in neuronal protection following epileptic, ischemic, and hypoglycemic insults.

TL;DR: The data provide evidence that forebrain ACh promotes neurogenesis, and suggest that the impaired cholinergic function in AD may in part contribute to deficits in learning and memory through reductions in the formation of new hippocampal neurons.

TL;DR: It is proved a principle, that selective hyperpolarization of principal cortical neurons by NpHR is sufficient to curtail paroxysmal activity in transduced neurons and can inhibit stimulation train-induced bursting in hippocampal organotypic slice cultures, which represents a model tissue of pharmacoresistant epilepsy.