Browsing by Author "Zara, Federico"

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Climate change and epilepsy: Insights from clinical and basic science studies
(ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE, 2021-01-01) Gulcebi I, Medine; Bartolini, Emanuele; Lee, Omay; Lisgaras, Christos Panagiotis; Onat, Filiz; Mifsud, Janet; Striano, Pasquale; Vezzani, Annamaria; Hildebrand, Michael S.; Jimenez-Jimenez, Diego; Junck, Larry; Lewis-Smith, David; Scheffer, Ingrid E.; Thijs, Roland D.; Zuberi, Sameer M.; Blenkinsop, Stephen; Fowler, Hayley J.; Foley, Aideen; Sisodiya, Sanjay M.; Balestrini, Simona; Berkovic, Samuel; Cavalleri, Gianpiero; Correa, Daniel Jose; Custodio, Helena Martins; Galovic, Marian; Guerrini, Renzo; Henshall, David; Howard, Olga; Hughes, Kelvin; Katsarou, Anna; Koeleman, Bobby P. C.; Krause, Roland; Lowenstein, Daniel; Mandelenaki, Despoina; Marini, Carla; O'Brien, Terence J.; Pace, Adrian; De Palma, Luca; Perucca, Piero; Pitkanen, Asla; Quinn, Finola; Selmer, Kaja Kristine; Steward, Charles A.; Swanborough, Nicola; Thijs, Roland; Tittensor, Phil; Trivisano, Marina; Weckhuysen, Sarah; Zara, Federico; Consortium, Epilepsy Climate Change
Climate change is with us. As professionals who place value on evidence-based practice, climate change is something we cannot ignore. The current pandemic of the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, has demonstrated how global crises can arise suddenly and have a significant impact on public health. Global warming, a chronic process punctuated by acute episodes of extreme weather events, is an insidious global health crisis needing at least as much attention. Many neurological diseases are complex chronic conditions influenced at many levels by changes in the environment. This review aimed to collate and evaluate reports from clinical and basic science about the relationship between climate change and epilepsy. The keywords climate change, seasonal variation, temperature, humidity, thermoregulation, biorhythm, gene, circadian rhythm, heat, and weather were used to search the published evidence. A number of climatic variables are associated with increased seizure frequency in people with epilepsy. Climate change-induced increase in seizure precipitants such as fevers, stress, and sleep deprivation (e.g. as a result of more frequent extreme weather events) or vector-borne infections may trigger or exacerbate seizures, lead to deterioration of seizure control, and affect neurological, cerebrovascular, or cardiovascular comorbidities and risk of sudden unexpected death in epilepsy. Risks are likely to be modified by many factors, ranging from individual genetic variation and temperature-dependent channel function, to housing quality and global supply chains. According to the results of the limited number of experimental studies with animal models of seizures or epilepsy, different seizure types appear to have distinct susceptibility to seasonal influences. Increased body temperature, whether in the context of fever or not, has a critical role in seizure threshold and seizure-related brain damage. Links between climate change and epilepsy are likely to be multifactorial, complex, and often indirect, which makes predictions difficult. We need more data on possible climate-driven altered risks for seizures, epilepsy, and epileptogenesis, to identify underlying mechanisms at systems, cellular, and molecular levels for better understanding of the impact of climate change on epilepsy. Further focussed data would help us to develop evidence for mitigation methods to do more to protect people with epilepsy from the effects of climate change. (C) 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
No evidence for a BRD2 promoter hypermethylation inblood leukocytes of Europeans with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy
(WILEY, 2019-01-01) Schulz, Herbert; Ruppert, Ann-Kathrin; Zara, Federico; Madia, Francesca; Iacomino, Michele; Vari, Maria S.; Balagura, Ganna; Minetti, Carlo; Striano, Pasquale; Blanche, Amedeo; Marini, Carla; Guerrini, Renzo; Weber, Yvonne G.; Becker, Felicitas; Lerche, Holger; Kapser, Claudia; Schankin, Christoph J.; Kunz, Wolfram S.; Moller, Rikke S.; Oliver, Karen L.; Bellows, Susannah T.; Mullen, Saul A.; Berkovic, Samuel F.; Scheffer, Ingrid E.; Caglayan, Hande; Ozbek, Ugur; Hoffmann, Per; Schramm, Sara; Tsortouktzidis, Despina; Becker, Albert J.; Sander, Thomas
Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) is a common syndrome of genetic generalized epilepsies (GGEs). Linkage and association studies suggest that the gene encoding the bromodomain-containing protein 2 (BRD2) may increase risk of JME. The present methylation and association study followed up a recent report highlighting that the BRD2 promoter CpG island (CpG76) is differentially hypermethylated in lymphoblastoid cells from Caucasian patients with JME compared to patients with other GGE subtypes and unaffected relatives. In contrast, we found a uniform low average percentage of methylation (<4.5\%) for 13 CpG76-CpGs in whole blood cells from 782 unrelated European Caucasians, including 116 JME patients, 196 patients with genetic absence epilepsies, and 470 control subjects. We also failed to confirm an allelic association of the BRD2 promoter single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs3918149 with JME (Armitage trend test, P=0.98), and we did not detect a substantial impact of SNP rs3918149 on CpG76 methylation in either 116 JME patients (methylation quantitative trait loci {[}meQTL], P=0.29) or 470 German control subjects (meQTL, P=0.55). Our results do not support the previous observation that a high DNA methylation level of the BRD2 promoter CpG76 island is a prevalent epigenetic motif associated with JME in Caucasians.
Rare coding variants in genes encoding GABA(A) receptors in genetic generalised epilepsies: an exome-based case-control study
(ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC, 2018-01-01) May, Patrick; Girard, Simon; Harrer, Merle; Bobbili, Dheeraj R.; Schubert, Julian; Wolking, Stefan; Becker, Felicitas; Lachance-Touchette, Pamela; Meloche, Caroline; Gravel, Micheline; Niturad, Cristina E.; Knaus, Julia; De Kovel, Carolien; Toliat, Mohamad; Polvi, Anne; Iacomino, Michele; Guerrero-Lopez, Rosa; Baulac, Stephanie; Marini, Carla; Thiele, Holger; Altmueller, Janine; Jabbari, Kamel; Ruppert, Ann-Kathrin; Jurkowski, Wiktor; Lal, Dennis; Rusconi, Raffaella; Cestele, Sandrine; Terragni, Benedetta; Coombs, Ian D.; Reid, Christopher A.; Striano, Pasquale; Caglayan, Hande; Siren, Auli; Everett, Kate; Moller, Rikke S.; Hjalgrim, Helle; Muhle, Hiltrud; Helbig, Ingo; Kunz, Wolfram S.; Weber, Yvonne G.; Weckhuysen, Sarah; De Jonghe, Peter; Sisodiya, Sanjay M.; Nabbout, Rima; Franceschetti, Silvana; Coppola, Antonietta; Vari, Maria S.; Trenite, Dorothee Kasteleijn-Nolst; Baykan, Betul; Ozbek, Ugur; Bebek, Nerses; Klein, Karl M.; Rosenow, Felix; Nguyen, Dang K.; Dubeau, Francois; Carmant, Lionel; Lortie, Anne; Desbiens, Richard; Clement, Jean-Francois; Cieuta-Walti, Cecile; Sills, Graeme J.; Auce, Pauls; Francis, Ben; Johnson, Michael R.; Marson, Anthony G.; Berghuis, Bianca; Sander, Josemir W.; Avbersek, Andreja; McCormack, Mark; Cavalleri, Gianpiero L.; Delanty, Norman; Depondt, Chantal; Krenn, Martin; Zimprich, Fritz; Peter, Sarah; Nikanorova, Marina; Kraaij, Robert; van Rooij, Jeroen; Balling, Rudi; Ikram, M. Arfan; Uitterlinden, Andre G.; Avanzini, Giuliano; Schorge, Stephanie; Petrou, Steven; Mantegazza, Massimo; Sander, Thomas; LeGuern, Eric; Serratosa, Jose M.; Koeleman, Bobby P. C.; Palotie, Aarno; Lehesjoki, Anna-Elina; Nothnagel, Michael; Nuernberg, Peter; Maljevic, Snezana; Zara, Federico; Cossette, Patrick; Krause, Roland; Lerche, Holger; Consortium, Epicure; Consortium, EuroEP.I.N.O.M.I.C.S. C. O. G. I. E.; Consortium, EpiPG. X.
Background Genetic generalised epilepsy is the most common type of inherited epilepsy. Despite a high concordance rate of 80\% in monozygotic twins, the genetic background is still poorly understood. We aimed to investigate the burden of rare genetic variants in genetic generalised epilepsy. Methods For this exome-based case-control study, we used three different genetic generalised epilepsy case cohorts and three independent control cohorts, all of European descent. Cases included in the study were clinically evaluated for genetic generalised epilepsy. Whole-exome sequencing was done for the discovery case cohort, a validation case cohort, and two independent control cohorts. The replication case cohort underwent targeted next-generation sequencing of the 19 known genes encoding subunits of GABA(A) receptors and was compared to the respective GABA(A) receptor variants of a third independent control cohort. Functional investigations were done with automated two-microelectrode voltage clamping in Xenopus laevis oocytes. Findings Statistical comparison of 152 familial index cases with genetic generalised epilepsy in the discovery cohort to 549 ethnically matched controls suggested an enrichment of rare missense (Nonsyn) variants in the ensemble of 19 genes encoding GABA(A) receptors in cases (odds ratio {[}OR] 2.40 {[}95\% CI 1.41-4.10]