Optogenetics and Chemogenetics

These are new ideas scientists are developing to hack into the brain in order to treat epilepsy. In optogenetics brain cells are genetically engineered to fire in the presence of light. The problem with this is that fiber optic cables must be implanted in the brain in order to let the trigger (light) in so the therapy can work. Hence the next therapy developed, chemogenetics, which doesn't need fiber optics, but instead uses brain cells engineered to fire in the presence of certain drugs. It has been used with some success in tests with rats and could soon be tested in humans. The type of epilepsy researchers think chemogenetic therapy can help regulate is called focal epilepsy. In this type of epilepsy people can feel when a seizure is about to begin and that would be when they would take the clozapine N-oxide as a pill, injection, or nasal spray to trigger the genetically engineered brain cells (the ones that cause the seizures) to turn off. The chemical, the clozapine N-oxide, only stays in the body for about 7 hours so the effect would be only temporary but this chemogenetic therapy does show promise.