Research News
Curing the Epilepsies 2021: Setting Research Priorities On January 5-7, 2021, the NIH/NINDS (National Institute of Health/ National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke) held the “Curing the Epilepsies 2021: Setting Research Priorities” conference in a virtual format. The goal of the conference was to guide updates to the current Epilepsy Research Benchmarks and Transformative Research Priorities with […]
Curing the Epilepsies Read More »
2020 DSF Grant Awardees DSF is dedicated to funding the highest caliber research on Dravet syndrome and associated epilepsies. Our focus is on research projects that will find new treatments and improve the quality of life for those living with an ion channel epilepsy. We place a high priority on funding research that has a
The COVID-19 pandemic has raised health concerns worldwide, but particularly in communities that may be at higher risk from illness and infection. To understand this better in the Dravet syndrome community, Dravet Syndrome UK (DSUK) performed a survey of families caring for an individual living with Dravet syndrome from June-July 2020 to assess the impacts
The impact of COVID-19 in Dravet Syndrome: a UK survey Read More »
Just last month, a previous research review detailed how Stoke Therapeutics developed their targeted augmentation of nuclear gene output (TANGO), utilizing anti-sense oligonucleotides (ASOs) to upregulate expression of several genes, including SCN1A, in human cells and mouse brain. ASOs are single-stranded RNAs that bind to target RNA sequences and have the potential to alter the
In this brief report published in June, Vezyroglou et al detail the results of epilepsy surgery for focal seizures in 8 patients carrying mutations in the SCN1A gene that were predicted to be causal. Three of the 8 patients had a clinical diagnosis of Dravet syndrome. The surgical procedures were successful in reducing or eliminating
In this paper, Dyment et al detail a new mouse for the study of Dravet syndrome modeled after a patient mutation. This particular mutation (H939R) does not result in the typical haploinsufficiency where Nav1.1 sodium channel levels are reduced, but rather appears to affect the function of one copy of the sodium channel. Consistent with
FINTEPLA (fenfluramine) was recently approved by the FDA for the treatment of seizures in Dravet syndrome. The FDA required Zogenix, Inc to include a black box warning on the label because fenfluramine belongs to a class of drugs that affect a specific serotonin receptor (5-HT2B), and these types of drugs have previously been associated with valvular
In late June 2020, Voskobiynyk et al shared their recent manuscript on bioRxiv (pre-print before peer-review) detailing a novel mouse model of Dravet syndrome that carries the same mutation in a non-coding region as a patient diagnosed with Dravet syndrome. “Non-coding” means that the mutation is not located in an area of the DNA that
Stoke Therapeutics published a paper in Nature Communications detailing the mechanism of action for their new TANGO (targeted augmentation of nuclear gene output) therapy that utilizes ASO (antisense oligonucleotide) technology. While the applications of this technology have been discussed in presentations and meetings, this is the first publication detailing how it was developed. Cells use
In previous research reviews we have talked about “Dravet mice” – usually that means mice which have been engineered to carry a deletion of one copy of the Scn1a gene. These mice exhibit the key features of Dravet syndrome, including febrile and spontaneous seizures, SUDEP, and cognitive and behavioral deficits. But these mice display varying
GABRA2 is a genetic modifier of Dravet syndrome in mice Read More »
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