Supriya Sharma, Arindam Ghosh Mazumder, Anil Kumar Rana, Vikram Patial and Damanpreet Singh
Background: Epilepsy is a chronic neurological condition that is mainly characterized by occurrence of spontaneous recurrent seizures. Study has also shown that temporal lobe seizure lead to development of ventricular fibrillation, shortening or prolongation of QT intervals, producing prolongation in the action potential, propensity to malignant tachyarrhythmia’s thus risking cardiac damage.
Methods: The present study was envisaged to understand the cardiac changes during different phases of epileptogenesis and molecular changes in rat lithium-pilocarpine (Li-pilo) model of epilepsy. The animals were exposed to Li-pilo for induction of spontaneous recurrent seizures (SRS).
Findings: Latent means arterial pressure decreased as compared to the basal, whereas it was increased during initial and late SRS phases. Prolonged QTc interval was observed during late SRS as that of basal and latent phase. A significant increase in the serum level of lactate dehydrogenase and creatine kinase was observed in epileptic animals, along with hypertrophy, degenerative changes and fibrosis in heart sections.
Conclusion: The results concluded that Li-pilo-induced SRS leads to cardiac dysfunction via mTOR pathway upregulation, thus suggested the regulatory control of mTOR pathway as a potential target for SUDEP management.