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A Study Of The Enzyme Gaba Transaminase

A Study of the Enzyme GABA-Transaminase to Design Inhibitory Drugs for the Treatment of Epilepsy

By: Allison Elsey
Class: Chem 4552
Date: April 22,2005
Presented to: Dr. Hobbs

A Study of the Enzyme GABA-Transaminase to Design Inhibitory Drugs for the Treatment of Epilepsy
Epilepsy is a neurological condition classified as a seizure disorder. The disorder was described as early as 400 B.C. by the Greek physician Hippocrates in a book he wrote on the "sacred" disease. He argued that this disease was not a curse but a brain disorder that had a natural cause just like any other disease. Epilepsy is also described in the book of Mark in the Bible when Jesus is asked to cast a demon out of a small boy. The description of the boy's actions leads to the conclusion that it is epilepsy and not a demon that was afflicting him.1 Therefore, epilepsy is a disorder that has been affecting the lives of humans and animals for hundreds of years. Today, it is a common disorder that affects approximately 50 million people around the world.2,3 The primary effects of epilepsy are exerted on the central nervous system and are the result of a disturbance in the electrical activity of the brain's neurons. The cause of this disturbance is believed to be an upset in the levels of excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters in the brain.2,3 This paper will focus on the role of the inhibitory neurotransmitter, g-aminobutyrate (GABA). Low levels of GABA in the brain are known to result in epilepsy and other neurological disorders including Huntington's disease and Parkinson's disease.4,5 The neurotransmitter upset is normally localized in areas of the brain that have been damaged but is capable of spreading to other brain areas or being genetically inherited in certain types of epilepsy. This chemical imbalance can be caused by a variety of factors that ultimately result in the main characteristic of epilepsy, a seizure. While scientists know certain circumstances are...