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“Planarians: A Behavioral Pharmacology Model for Studying the Effects of Anticonvulsants on Chemical-Stimuli Induced Seizure-like Activity” Antiepileptic drug (AED) discovery is driven by screening the potential compounds in animal models of epilepsy; normally in rodents (rat or mice) that are induced to have seizures using an electrical of chemical stimulus. Planarians have been the target of many behavioral studies following the exposure to drugs acting on neural transmission. These studies using planaria have confirmed that the planarians are a very simple experimental model to investigate the neurochemical and functional interaction between different neurotransmitter-receptor systems and also the pharmacological action of small molecular compounds. The long-term goal of my research is to develop a planarian model for epilepsy, because such a model system will be beneficial not only to understand the anti-seizure pharmacology of existing AEDs, but will also minimize the cost associated with the development of new AEDs. The first step toward this long-term goal is to study the behavioral pharmacology of well-established anticonvulsants on a number of chemical-stimuli or maximal electroshock induced seizure models in planaria. During this summer research project, an undergraduate student at SCSU will focus on this aspect of developing a planaria model for epilepsy. The outcomes of this research project will take us to the next step of model development wherein we will investigate the molecular basis of the anti-seizure pharmacology of anticonvulsants in planaria. Latha Ramakrishnan, Ph.D.
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