Background 

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the main causes of epilepsy in adults. Yet, there are no treatments that would prevent the development of epilepsy following a TBI. 

Research  

Here, we tested two drugs already approved by the FDA (ceftriaxone and istradefyllin) for their impact on TBI-induced epilepsy using clinically relevant pre-clinical mouse models. Our results show that while each drug on its own reduced the likelihood of seizures following TBI, the effects of both drugs given in combination where significantly more pronounced.

Potential Impact

Our findings identify a novel disease-modifying approach following TBI using a combination of two FDA-approved drugs. Importantly, the fact that both drugs are already in clinical use should accelerate their implementation in a clinical setting for post-traumatic epilepsy.