2008 Brain Star Award Recipient - Michael Galic
Recipient
Michael Galic - Biosketch
PhD
University of Calgary
Article
Galic, MA., Riazi, K., Heida, JG., Mouihate, A., Fournier, NM., Spencer, SJ., Kalynchuk LE., Teskey, GC., Pittman, QJ. 2008. Postnatal inflammation increases seizure susceptibility in adult rats. J Neurosci. 28: 6904-13.
Significance of the paper
From a clinical perspective, Epilepsy is a disorder with a poorly defined set of risk factors. For most patients (~80%) that suffer from seizures, we have little understanding of what caused their disease. Our paper describes how a relatively common inflammatory process (similar to a cold or flu) can alter the brain of the developing rat in a way that causes it to be more susceptible to Epilepsy; a disorder characterized by a low seizure threshold. We found that specific components of the inflammatory process, a soluble protein messenger called tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFa; a proinflammatory cytokine), that when released during a prototypical bacterial inflammatory process, can modify brain excitability well into adulthood. By using diagnostically sensitive assays to measure these proinflammatory cytokines and medically approved drugs to attenuate their effects, we have demonstrated a potentially tenable clinical intervention for the pro-seizure effects of inflammation at an early age.
One of the most important findings of this work shows that the relative sensitivity of the brain to the effects of proinflammatory cytokines occurs during very discrete stages of development, which may in part, explain why not all children that have infections go on to have Epilepsy as adults. We suspect that such an inflammatory event, when introduced at a critical period of development, may result in a heightened global sensitivity of the brain to a number of environmental stimuli that may result in psychological or physiological abnormalities later in life. Such "programming" or "priming" of the brain may be the route cause of many mental health issues that affect some, but not all adults under the "right" conditions.