http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071220172129.htm

How An Atkins-like Diet Can Treat Epilepsy: Leptin Attenuates Rodent Seizure
Severity

ScienceDaily (Dec. 29, 2007) - Not all individuals who have epilepsy respond
to traditional treatments and these individuals are said to have medically
refractory epilepsy.

Strict use of a ketogenic diet high in fats and extremely low in
carbohydrates is sometimes used for treatment of refractory epilepsy, and is
effective about half of the time.

However, the mechanisms whereby ketogenic diets suppress epileptic symptoms
have long been a mystery. New data generated by Kelvin Yamada and colleagues
at the Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, has revealed
that intranasal delivery of leptin, a hormone important in feeding and
energy metabolism, delayed the onset of convulsions in a rodent model of
seizures.

As indicated by Tamas Horvath and Sabrina Diano in an accompanying
commentary, these data suggest that leptin-triggered signaling may be a key
to how a ketogenic diet combats epilepsy.

In the study, when focal seizures were induced by injection of the chemical
4AP into rat brains, co-injection of leptin reduced both the length and the
frequency of these seizures. Intranasal administration permitted leptin to
cross the blood-brain barrier and delay the onset of chemical-induced
generalized seizures in mice.

Additional experiments revealed that leptin may assert these antiseizure
effects via interaction with the JAK2/PI3K signaling pathway.

The authors concluded that successful epilepsy treatments may include
dietary changes to increase leptin levels, intranasal administration of the
compound, and pharmacological targeting of JAK2/PI3K signaling pathways.

Article: Leptin inhibits 4-aminopyridine-- and pentylenetetrazole-induced
seizures and AMPAR-mediated synaptic transmission in rodents. Journal of
Clinical Investigation. December 20, 2007.

Adapted from materials provided by Journal of Clinical Investigation.