Brain protein metabolism in epilepsy

Both generalized and focal seizures dissociate brain polyribosomes and severely inhibit brain protein synthesis. This effect is found in freely convulsing animals and in animals that have been paralyzed and oxygen-ventilated in order to prevent hypoxemia, cerebral hypoxia, and other systemic changes associated with convulsions. Recent autoradiographic studies have shown that generalized seizures can result in striking focal inhibition of brain protein synthesis in adult rats and newborn marmoset monkeys. Local cerebral glucose metabolism and local cerebral blood flow were also studied in newborn marmosets by autoradiography. Although flow and metabolism are closely matched in control marmosets, seizures result in large local increases in 2-deoxyglucose metabolism, with lesser or no increases in local cerebral blood flow resulting in a relative mismatch. Those regions in which protein synthesis was most severely inhibited were those in which the relative mismatch between blood flow and metabolism was most marked. The molecular mechanisms regulating protein biosynthesis are not known. Translational regulation during seizures appears to be exerted, in large part, at the initiation step. A likely mechanism is the inhibition of ternary complex formation, one of the early steps in the initiation process, by increases in the intracellular ratio of [GDP]:[GTP]. This ratio is related to the cells' energy charge. Reduced levels of ATP during seizures can lead to an increased ratio of [GDP]:[GTP] via of the enzyme nucleoside diphosphate kinase (E.C. 2.7.4.6) and to inhibition of protein synthesis initiation. Regulation of protein biosynthesis during seizures is likely to be complex and exerted at many sites; some of these possibilities are discussed.