Skip to main content

REVIEW article

Front. Neurol.
Sec. Epilepsy
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fneur.2024.1466075

Voltage-gated potassium channels and genetic epilepsy

Provisionally accepted
  • Department of Neurology,Children's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Liaoning Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Recent advances in exome and targeted sequencing have significantly improved the aetiological diagnosis of epilepsy, revealing an increasing number of epilepsy-related pathogenic genes. As a result, the diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy have become more accessible and more traceable. Voltage-gated potassium channels (Kv) regulate electrical excitability in neuron systems. Mutate Kv channels have been implicated in epilepsy as demonstrated in case reports and researches using gene-knockout mouse models. Both gain and loss-of-function of Kv channels lead to epilepsy with similar phenotypes through different mechanisms, bringing new challenges to the diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy. Research on genetic epilepsy is progressing rapidly, with several drug candidates targeting mutated genes or channels emerging. This article provides a brief overview of the symptoms and pathogenesis of epilepsy associated with voltage-gated potassium ion channels dysfunction and highlights recent progress in treatments. Here, we reviewed case reports of gene mutations related to epilepsy in recent years and summarized the proportion of Kv genes. Our focus is on the progress in precise treatments for specific voltage-gated potassium channel genes linked to epilepsy, including KCNA1, KCNA2, KCNB1, KCNC1, KCND2, KCNQ2, KCNQ3, KCNH1 and KCNH5. This article focuses on summarizing recent clinical developments concerning the critical voltage-gated potassium (KV) family-related epilepsies from the KCNA-, KCNB-, KCNC-, KCND-, KCNQ-and KCNH-subfamilies.

    Keywords: Epilepsy, seizure, potassium channel, potassium channel gain-offunction, genetic diagnosis

    Received: 17 Jul 2024; Accepted: 20 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Zheng and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Jing Chen, Department of Neurology,Children's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Liaoning Province, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.