The indications of an uncommon and challenging-to-manage type of epilepsy were alleviated by Prozac, a drug typically prescribed as an antidepressant, according to a recent case analysis published by WashU Medicine researchers. This investigation, featured in Frontiers in Pharmacology, highlights the situation of two sisters suffering from developmental and epileptic encephalopathy, a condition that rendered them vulnerable to uncontrollable seizures.  

The sisters, currently in their 20s, are both patients of Christina Gurnett, MD, PhD, the A. Ernest and Jane G. Stein Professor of Neurology and leader of the Division of Pediatric and Developmental Neurology, who collaborated on the case report with Lawrence Salkoff, PhD, a neuroscience professor. Tychele Turner, PhD, an assistant professor of genetics, pinpointed a gene associated with the sisters’ condition in 2022. The WashU researchers demonstrated that norfluoxetine, a metabolite of Prozac’s active ingredient, mitigated the effects of the sisters’ detrimental genetic variation, reducing their seizures and enabling them to terminate or lower their dosage of various other medications. Given that the gene connected to the sisters’ disorder is closely related to other genes that also respond to norfluoxetine, the research team is examining the possibility of this finding being applicable to additional types of pediatric-onset epilepsy.  

Discover more on the Department of Neuroscience website.

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