Design and synthesis of novel antiepileptogenic drugs

El=pilepsy is a common medical disorder affecting approximately one per hundred Canadians. although there are drugs available to treat epilepsy, they are effective in only 65% of people and their use is associated with side-effects in 50% of individuals. More importantly, the drugs available for treating epilepsy merely suppress seizures; they do not prevent epilepsy from occurring after head trauma, they do not prevent existing epilepsy from worsening. What is needed is a class of compounds called antiepileptogenic drugs - these drugs would actually prevent epilepsy from starting. The goal of our research is to discover such a drug. Since no such drug currently exists, there is no obvious starting point. We have decided to target a chemical normally occurring in the brain, called beta-alanine. Beta-alanine suppresses electrical activity in the brain and is a logical starting point for antiepileptogenic drug design. We will use state-of-the-art computer modelling to design drugs based on beta-alanine. These drugs will be prerared and tested in models of epilepsy. The end result should be the discovery of a pioneering antiepileptogenic drug.