Dr. Mary Putt, along with her team in the Biostatistics and Data Science Core, co-authored a new publication in Nature Communications examining the relationship between sleep drive and seizure activity.
Since antiquity, it has been known that sleep loss is associated with increased risk of seizure. Using a novel video detection system of spontaneous seizures in Drosophila epilepsy models, the study show that seizures worsen as a result of increased “sleep drive,” not simply when total sleep amount falls. Downregulation of the 5HT1A serotonin receptor in sleep-promoting cells mediates the effect of sleep drive on seizures, and the researchers identify an FDA-approved 5HT1A agonist to mitigate seizures.
This work is a result of a collaboration between neurodevelopmental and molecular biologists, Drs. Vishnu Cuddapah and Amita Seghal and their research groups, with expertise in biostatistical analysis provided by Dr. Putt through the Biostatistics and Data Science Core of the NIH-supported CHOP/Penn Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center.