Epilepsy: mice help us understand much more than just seizures

Loan Samalens, a PhD student at GIN, prepared a thesis entitled ‘Development of an innovative radiotherapy using synchrotron X-rays to treat drug-resistant focal epilepsy’ in the Team "Functional Neuroimaging and Brain Perfusion". 

Seeking to develop a treatment for epilepsy that is less invasive and less risky than surgery, she used a mouse model in which mesiotemporal epilepsy (MTE) can be induced by injecting kainate into the dorsal hippocampus. ‘We then observed other disorders in these mice, such as sudden death, weight gain and behavioural disorders,’ says the researcher. ‘These are comorbidities that are also observed in epileptic patients.’

Loan Samanens therefore wondered whether these mice also exhibited other cognitive and psychiatric disorders similar to those observed in humans. To test the validity of this KA-MTLE mouse model in studying the comorbidities of the disease, she subjected male and female mice (with or without induced EMT) to various behavioural tests concerning their feeding, well-being, impulsivity, memory, motor skills, anxiety, etc., while monitoring physiological parameters (weight, oestrus cycle in females, etc.).

Finally, this model reproduces not only epilepsy but also behavioural disorders similar to those observed in young humans with mesotemporal epilepsy, including hyperactivity and certain cognitive disorders similar to ADHD. ‘The KA-MTLE model therefore allows us to study the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying both epilepsy and its comorbidities, which is crucial for the development of treatments that target all symptoms and not just seizures,’ concludes the young researcher.
 

Reference :
Comorbidities in the mouse model of temporal lobe epilepsy induced by intrahippocampal kainate.
Samalens L, Beets C, Courivaud C, Kahane P, Depaulis A.
Epilepsia. 2025 Jul 17. doi: 10.1111/epi.18553. Online ahead of print.