2026.10.09
Dr. Koustav Roy Receives the Young Epilepsy Section (YES)-Japan English Oral Presentation Award at the 59th Annual Meeting of the Japan Epilepsy Society
Dr. Koustav Roy, a Specially Appointed Assistant Professor in the Lazarus/Oishi Lab at the International Institute for Integrative Sleep Medicine (WPI-IIIS), University of Tsukuba, received the Young Epilepsy Section (YES)-Japan English Oral Presentation Award at the 59th Annual Meeting of the Japan Epilepsy Society, held at Toki Messe in Niigata on October 1–3, 2026.
YES of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) is a worldwide organization of young people in the early stages of a career focused on the care of people with epilepsy or epilepsy research.
Presentation title: “A novel antiseizure intervention based on allosteric modulators of adenosine A2A receptors (A2AR)“
Epilepsy is the fourth most common neurological disorder worldwide, affecting approximately 50 million people, and at least 30% of patients do not achieve adequate seizure control with current antiseizure medications. Adenosine signaling has long been implicated in the regulation of sleep and neuronal excitability.
The research team previously identified a key role for A2AR in sleep–wake control in the nucleus accumbens and developed A2ARPAM-1, a positive allosteric modulator (PAM) of A2AR, as a potential therapy for insomnia.
In this study, the team used a pentylenetetrazol (PTZ)-induced seizure model to evaluate seizure outcomes with and without A2ARPAM-1 pretreatment. Unexpectedly, PTZ administration caused approximately 80% mortality in A2AR knockout mice, suggesting an antiseizure role for A2AR signaling, contrary to previous reports. Pretreatment with A2ARPAM-1 significantly reduced the severity of convulsive seizures involving the whole body, as shown by shorter seizure duration and lower epileptiform spike frequency in electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings. A2ARPAM-1 pretreatment also substantially diminished postictal depressive episodes, characterized by sustained high-amplitude EEG activity following full-body convulsive seizures.
Together, these findings reveal a previously underappreciated anticonvulsant role of A2AR signaling and highlight A2ARPAM-1 as a promising therapeutic candidate for severe epilepsy.
| the 59th Annual Meeting of the Japan Epilepsy Society | Link |
|---|