Thesis supervisor: Attila Sík
Location of studies (in Hungarian): PTE ÁOK Pécs, Szigeti u. 12. Abbreviation of location of studies: ÁOK
Description of the research topic:
Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP) is the most common epilepsy-related cause of mortality. Incidence can be as high as 1/100 person-years for the most severe forms of epilepsy, and is 0.35/1000 person-years in the general population of people with epilepsy. The underlying cause is not understood although post mortem studies implicate a malfunction of autonomic control. The interaction between and the heart causes heart failure during epilepsy. Invasive peripheral nerve stimulation has been tried to decrease the incidence of SUDEP, but no drugs have been in human trial to decrease the mortality. To better understand the underlying mechanism of SUDEP and develop a platform to find leads for potent pharmaceutical drugs we use zebrafish as an in vivo vertebrate model. The aim of the project is to non invasively record electrical activity from the heart and the brain in parallel of zebrafish embryos and develop a high-throughput recording platform for drug testing. The result of the project will be an innovative high-throughput recording platform that can lead to find effective drug candidates for SUDEP.