Pathophysiology and Treatment of Epilepsy

Based on  The Author’s  US Provisional Patent  
60/496, 397

Atef  M.  Elayyan
Amman   -   Jordan
atefesmail65@gmail.com

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3198-5418

INTRODUCTION:

Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder that is characterized by recurrent unprovoked seizures.  These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms due to synchronous, abnormal and excessive neural activity in the brain.  About  50 million people worldwide have epilepsy at any one time.

PROPOSED PATHOPHYSIOLOGY: 

The firing of an action potential by an axon is accomplished through voltage-gated sodium channels.  Each sodium channel exists in 3 states: rest, active and inactive.

During an action potential, these channels exist in the active state and allow the influx of sodium ions.  Once the activation or stimulus is terminated, a percentage of these sodium channels become inactive for a period of time known as the refractory period.  With constant stimulus or rapid firing, many of the channels exist in the inactive state, rendering the axon incapable of generating the action potential.  Antiepileptic drugs that target these sodium channels prevent the return of these channels to the resting state by stabilizing the inactive state of these channels and prolonging the effective refractory period.  In doing so, the repetitive firing of the axons is prevented.

When chromium chloride is proposed to totally release from some voltage-gated sodium channels in hypothalamus in brain,  a continuous influx of sodium ions diffuses into these cells leading to altered neuronal excitability thus,  a small fraction of sodium current, termed the persistent sodium current fails to inactivate significantly,  even with prolonged depolarization.  This persistent sodium current which is activated at subthreshold voltages leads to the generation of recurrent high-frequency bursts of action potentials last for seconds or minutes during epileptic seizures followed by rapid repolarization and then hyperpolarization. This sequence is called the paroxysmal depolarizing shift.  The subsequent hyperpolarizing after potential is mediated by GABA receptors and Cl^- influx, or by K⁺ efflux, depending on the cell type.

CONCLUSION:

Based on our preliminary results  –  which are consistent with well established scientific literature -  we predict  that chromium picolinate  supplement in particular,  due to its high bioavailability serves as a long-term  and intermittent adjuvant approach that may relieve symptoms or even cure mental and some neurological disorders like epilepsy effectively excluding irreversible Parkinson:s disease.   Daily dose 200 mcg orally for a limited period of 12 weeks for adults along with standard treatment,  preferably under medical supervision.