New advances in Traditional Chinese Medicine interventions for epilepsy: where are we and what do we know?

Epilepsy, one of the most common neurological diseases, affects more than 70 million people worldwide. Anti-seizure drugs targeting membrane ion channels or GABAergic neurotransmission are the first choices for controlling seizures, whereas the high incidence of pharmacoresistance and adverse effects largely restrict the availability of current anti-seizure drugs (ASDs). Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has shown historical evidence-based therapeutic effects for neurological diseases including epilepsy. But until the late 1990s, great efforts in both clinical and experimental fields advanced TCM interventions for epilepsy from evidence-based practices to more systematic neuropharmacological significance, and show new lights on preferable management of epilepsy in the last decade. This review summarized the advances of applying TCM interventions (ranging from herbal medicines and their active ingredients to other strategies such as acupuncture) for epilepsy, followed by associated mechanism theories. The therapeutic potential of TCM interventions for epilepsy as well as its comorbidities turns from somehow debatable to hopeful. Finally, some prospects and directions were proposed to drive further clinical translational research. The future directions of TCM should aim at not only deriving specific anti-epileptic molecules but also illustrating more precise mechanisms with the assistance of advanced multifaceted experimental tools.