Healthy life-style interventions to attain disease modifications in acquired epilepsy

Kebede, Valentina (2023). Healthy life-style interventions to attain disease modifications in acquired epilepsy. PhD thesis The Open University.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21954/ou.ro.00017166

Abstract

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder that affects about 50 million people worldwide. Although several anti-seizure medications are available, still 30% of patients have seizure that are refractory to the current drugs.
Healthy life-style behaviours (physical exercise or dietary interventions) have been demonstrated to be beneficial for people with epilepsy for the management of seizures and the neurological comorbidities associated with the disease.
Moreover, recent evidence have shown that the gut-microbiota-brain axis might be involved in the pathogenesis of acquired epilepsies. The mechanisms of action of the gut-microbiota in epilepsy is still unknown but human and animal studies have demonstrated that intestinal dysbiosis and gut structural modifications are correlated with the response to medications and the incidence of the disease.
Hence, our study aimed to investigate the preventive and therapeutic effects of voluntary physical exercise in a model of acquired epilepsy. In addition, microbiota composition and gut structural and molecular changes of epileptic mice were analysed investigating the effect of rifaximin which is an antibiotic with probiotic properties.