A Partnership Among Two Leading Non-profit Epilepsy Organizations:Epilepsy Foundation and Epilepsy Therapy Project

Looking back on the progress in the last generation, it is not surprising that the leaders in epilepsy research believe that a cure may be in sight. For the first time, we can think in terms of "cure"—not just "control". Now is the time to build on the remarkable progress of the past few years. And we can do it by investing more money in scientific research than we ever have before.

The mission of New Therapy Grant Program is to drive the development of new therapies for epilepsy, accelerating the advancement of research from the laboratory to the patient. The Foundation funds innovative senior level research projects led by the nation's leading scientists with the potential to discover new treatment options and ultimately a cure.

The New Therapy Grant Program focuses on:

New Therapy Grant Program

A partnership among two leading non-profit epilepsy organizations:
Epilepsy Foundation and Epilepsy Therapy Project

Every day, millions of people lose seconds, minutes or hours of their lives to seizures. These precious moments can never be regained. That’s why the New Therapy Grant Program funds research with the potential to discover new treatment options and ultimately a cure. The following are the most recent New Therapy Grant awards:

2012 AWARDS

Phase IIa Clinical Trial for Add-on Triheptanoin

Karin Borges, Ph.D.
The University of Queensland
St. Lucia, Brisbane, Australia
 
Merely eating a cookie can break the effects of a highly-restrictive ketogenic diet, even causing a seizure. Neurobiologist Karin Borges and epileptologist Terence O’Brien are working on what they hope is a better alternative: an edible oil called triheptanoin they found reduces seizures in mice. Already used successfully to treat some metabolic disorders, triheptanoin may replenish certain brain metabolites important for healthy neuron activity. And instead of replacing a tastier diet, the oil would only supplement it, dropping the diet portion from 80-90% fatty calories to 35% triheptanoin calories. Borges and O’Brien will use their grant to conduct clinical trials in in Melbourne, Australia with adults who have medically refractory epilepsy.

Novel Inferior Alveolar Nerve Stimulation Device

Ming Cheng, M.D.
NuroRestore, Inc.
Mansfield, Massachusetts

Nerve stimulation seeks to prevent seizures with mild electrical pulses sent across different nerves via a pacemaker-type device. NuroRestore has developed such a device that stimulates the inferior alveolar nerve, a branch of the large trigeminal nerve in the lower jaw. Recent studies suggest that nerve stimulation therapy effectively reduces seizures in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy. Cheng’s team reports positive results in a 41 year old woman with epilepsy, and will use the grant money for clinical trials.

XeriJect Diazepam for Emergency Treatment of Seizures

Steven Prestrelski, Ph.D.
Xeris Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Austin, Texas

Small, pen-type injection devices have become mainstays in many therapies, including rapid delivery of insulin for diabetics and epinephrine for people with serious, life-threatening allergies. The XeriJect Diazepam project seeks to develop a low volume, painless, auto-injectable formulation for subcutaneous administration of diazepam – a commonly-prescribed anti-seizure medication otherwise known as Valium – to treat seizures. The current standard of care is diazepam rectal gel, difficult to use in an emergency setting. Prestrelski and team believe a simple, ready-to-use auto-injectable form of diazepam represents a better alternative.

FDA Application for EpiLert V1

Amos Shaham, MSEE
Biolert, Ltd.
New York University Medical Center
New York, New York

EpiLert seeks to alert caregivers and medical professionals about seizures. The patient wears a small electronic movement sensor that communicates with the caregiver via a cell-phone style device that provides audio and visual alerts; automatic landline dialing; Internet interactivity and text messaging. The system also records and stores patient movements before, during, and after seizure events for medical evaluation.

FALL 2011 AWARDS

Dr. Borges' laboratory recently found that a synthetic edible tasteless oil inhibits seizures in mice. This grant will allow her in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Terence O'Brien, and other epileptology colleagues from Melbourne, Australia, to investigate if this oil can reduce seizures in adult patients with medically refractory epilepsy. This clinical trial will take place in Melbourne, Australia.

Novel inferior alveolar nerve stimulation device

NuroRestore has developed a new epilepsy device that works like a pacemaker, but stimulates a nerve in the lower jaw instead of the heart. This stimulation seems to decrease seizures in animals and humans. We implanted this device in a 41 year old woman with epilepsy, and it completely changed her life. We now plan to implant more patients in clinical trials, with the hope that this will lead to a new option for epilepsy sufferers worldwide.

This EpiLert project takes a unique approach to the detection of epileptic seizures. A system that includes a small electronic movement sensor unit worn by the patient and a compact alert unit carried by a caregiver is used. When a seizure event is detected by the 'Sensor Unit', it transmits a message to the 'Alert Unit' that is carried by a caregiver. The Alert Unit is in the form of a cell phone and provides both visual and audible alerts. The Alert Unit in its commercial form will also include additional alert methods such as auto-dialing via a landline or a cellular telephone, internet linkage and electronic messaging such as SMS.  In addition to the role as an alert system, the EpiLert records all seizures event as well as periodically (e.g. every 10 minutes) monitoring system status and patient's movements. This data is stored in a memory and later can be transferred to a physician for further medical evaluations. This issue is important for accurate reporting of epileptic seizures that caregivers are not aware of (such as at night) and are substantial feedback as to the effectiveness of the medical treatment.

Award: $130,000/ 1 year

 SPRING 2011 AWARDS

Alexander Rotenberg, M.D., Ph.D.
Children’s Hospital
Boston, Massachusetts
Award: $199,650/ 2 years
Title: 1 Hz rTMS for treatment of temporal lobe epilepsy
 

We will test whether a novel form of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), a safe noninvasive method for stimulating the brain, suppresses seizures in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Conventional rTMS can reduce cortical excitability, but not in the temporal lobes. Here, we hypothesize that rTMS with the HCoil which can stimulate deep brain structures, can safely reduce seizures in TLE patients.

Sponsored in part by the Patricia Bowman Terwilliger Family Foundation

FALL 2010 AWARDS

A Pilot Study to Evaluate MR-guided Laser Ablation of Epilepsy Foci

The goal of this project is to complete a pilot clinical study to determine the feasibility of MRI-guided laser ablation of epileptogenic seizure foci as a treatment for patients refractory to pharmacologic therapies. For many of these patients (who constitute approximately one third of all epileptic patients), surgical resection offers a potentially curative therapy, yet few patients elect to undergo resection due to the invasive nature of the procedure and risk for morbidity. We hypothesize that precise destruction of epileptogenic foci using a minimally invasive technique known as laser induced thermal therapy (LITT) would provide results approaching surgical resection in terms of seizure relief, and could be carried out with a far lower risk of surgical morbidity to the patient.  Visualase has developed a system that uses real-time magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to provide feedback control over laser heating, resulting in a highly precise and controlled thermal ablation.

SmartWatch: Monitoring, Detection, Alerts and Tracking

SmartWatch is a novel device that continuously monitors, detects, alerts upon and records rhythmic, repetitive convulsive movements of the limbs, caused by a generalized tonic-clonic or grand-mal seizure.  It is low cost, passive, non-invasive device that is easy to use and as simple as wearing a watch. It is already in clinical trials and has generated strong interest from patients, caregivers and neurologists. This project will help Smart Monitor expand the clinical studies and patient testing, mature the product based on patient feedback, meet FDA compliance and regulatory requirements and commercialize the SmartWatch.  The primary goal of this project is to get the SmartWatch device in the hands of at least 1000 people prone to convulsive seizures within a year.

Implementing Clinically Verified Algorithms in an Epilepsy Alert Device

For an Epilepsy Alert device based on limb movement, a robust seizure identification algorithm is an essential element. We have developed and refined these algorithms from a database of seizure and non-seizure movements that were accumulated via unique hardware and software in a hospital setting.  In this proposed project the algorithm is to be embedded in the microprocessor that is incorporated in the EpiLert set. As part of this project, prototypes of the EpiLert sets will also be constructed which will include a Sensor Unit with a form factor similar to a wristwatch, and an Alert Unit the size of a cell-phone. These prototypes will be further evaluated in hospitals to confirm performance.  To further demonstrate the automatic Alert and Report capabilities of the EpiLert, additional software will be added and incorporated into the EpiLert and its associated PC. The PC will interface with My Epilepsy Diary™ (a service provided by the Epilepsy Therapy Project and Irody) via the internet and will report in real time on an Epilepsy seizure attack and the episode's details. This will demonstrate the future capability of the EpiLert to automatically communicate with My Epilepsy Diary and from there to deliver the data to physicians and researchers.