An African plant leaf extract is very effective in preventing life-threatening seizures

Researchers in the Department of physiology and Biophysics at the University of California, Irvine School of medicine have discovered the molecular basis for an ancient herbal therapeutic effect on a variety of diseases, including epilepsy Herbal medicine, a leaf extract from the shrub Mallotus oppositifolius, has previously been found to be effective in controlling seizures, but the mechanism is unclear The findings, published in nature communications, show that two components of the Mallotus leaf extract activate KCNQ2 / 3, a potassium channel necessary to control electrical activity in the brain The two components are effective alone, but the combination is more effective in activating KCNQ2 / 3 channel and preventing life-threatening seizures The UCI research team includes postdoctoral researcher Dr R í an Manville and lead researcher Geoffrey Abbott (M.S., Ph.D.), who screened out a single compound in the leaf extract for channel opening activity, and then combined the two most active compounds to find the therapeutic synergy contained in it, which has been used for centuries in African Folk therapy Remarkably, isovaleric acid, one of the two compounds identified, is also the main component of valerian root It was used as a medicine for insomnia sleep therapy in ancient Greece and used as an anticonvulsant by British and Native Americans for centuries In the United States, up to 2 million people still use valerian root as a herbal medicine for anxiety and insomnia every week "We are very interested in using molecular methods to deal with ethnic plants, plant research and its use for local people, so as to discover the molecular mechanism of ancient drugs, and use this knowledge to create safer and more effective drugs KCNQ channels are usually opened by electrical activity, but we know that they are also very sensitive to the presence of small molecules, including neurotransmitters, but also from external molecules, such as drugs, as well as ingredients of food and herbal extracts, "Abbott said "Some folk medicines are in danger of being lost, either because traditional practices are forgotten or because the plant species used are in danger Species loss may come from overfishing, habitat destruction or climate change The UCI team found that the herbal extracts they studied had different channel subtype preferences, while modern drugs activated KCNQ2 / 3 channels, such as the anticonvulsant retigabine Therefore, by combining herbal compounds with retigabine, they can completely lock the channel, which is a feat that has not been realized before "Locking open channels is a clever technique, but it can also have clinical significance Last year, retigabine was removed from the market for a surprising side effect: it turns skin and white eyes blue However, with the combination of retigabine and herbal ingredients, we found that we could significantly reduce the dose of retigabine required for activity "This strategy may one day allow us to use drugs like retigabine in a dose low enough to be safe, while retaining or even improving efficacy, combining them with natural booster compounds from plants," Abbott said In addition to the enhanced effect of herbal extracts, the ability to identify specific chemicals in plants that activate influential ion channels (such as KCNQ2 / 3) may allow us to develop a new epilepsy, anxiety and pain drug, which provides an alternative chemical space through the use of molecular components of national plants.