In the cover article of the June 11 issue of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, a team of researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina, led by Sherine Chan, Ph.D., and James Chou, Ph.D., reports that a new vitamin K-based drug has proved effective in mouse models of medication-resistant seizures.
Chan and Chou, both associate professors in the Department of Drug Discovery and Biomedical Sciences in MUSC’s College of Pharmacy, are two of the co-founders of Neuroene Therapeutics, a startup company with the mission of developing therapies for medication-resistant conditions, such as epilepsy, caused by mitochondrial dysfunction.
Of the 3.4 million patients with epilepsy in the U.S., about one-third live with medication-resistant epilepsy, meaning that their seizures cannot be controlled. Uncontrolled seizures can occur suddenly, without warning, putting patients at higher risk for injury and reducing quality of life. These patients are in urgent need of new treatment options.
