MAPPING HUMAN EPILEPSY GENES - IMPLICATIONS FOR THE TREATMENT OF EPILEPSY

Recent and ongoing advances in mapping and isolating human epilepsy ge nes will: (i) modify the classification of the epilepsies; (ii) base a ntiepileptic drug development on defined epilepsy mutations; and (iii) spur the development of somatic cell and/or germ line therapy for the fatal progressive myoclonus epilepsies and, eventually, the chronic g eneralised and partial epilepsies. In the next century, advances in th ese 3 areas will dramatically change the diagnostic, therapeutic and p rognostic approach to patients with epilepsy, and will probably elimin ate some genetic epilepsies within 2 or 3 generations.