International Journal of Molecular Sciences Review Epileptic Mechanisms Shared by Alzheimer’s Disease: Viewed via the Unique Lens of Genetic Epilepsy Jing-Qiong Kang 1,2 1 Department of Neurology & Pharmacology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN 37232-8552, USA;
[email protected]; Tel.: +1-615-936-8399; Fax: +1-615-322-5517 2 Vanderbilt Kennedy Center of Human Development, Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37232-8522, USA Abstract: Our recent work on genetic epilepsy (GE) has identified common mechanisms between GE and neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Although both disorders are seemingly unrelated and occur at opposite ends of the age spectrum, it is likely there are shared mechanisms and studies on GE could provide unique insights into AD pathogenesis. Neurodegen- erative diseases are typically late-onset disorders, but the underlying pathology may have already occurred long before the clinical symptoms emerge. Pathophysiology in the early phase of these diseases is understudied but critical for developing mechanism-based treatment. In AD, increased seizure susceptibility and silent epileptiform activity due to disrupted excitatory/inhibitory (E/I) balance has been identified much earlier than cognition deficit. Increased epileptiform activity is likely a main pathology in the early phase that directly contributes to impaired cognition. It is an enormous challenge to model the early phase of pathology with conventional AD mouse models due to the chronic disease course, let alone the complex interplay between subclinical nonconvulsive epileptiform activity, AD pathology, and cognition deficit. We have extensively studied GE, especially with gene mutations that affect the GABA pathway such as mutations in GABAA receptors and GABA transporter Citation: Kang, J.-Q.