A common etiological hub for the emergence of sleep disorders and epilepsy

• Applicant: Dr. Paul Volkmann
• Subject Area: Cognitive, Systems and Behavioural Neurobiology ; Molecular and Cellular Neurology and Neuropathology
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 543939696

Sleep disorders are among the most prevalent diseases across the globe and show a bidirectional relationship with epilepsy. Novel experimental data from the Miesenböck laboratory have shown that knock-out of a voltage-gated potassium channel subunit called Kvß2 in mice not only produces seizures, but also leads to reduced non-rapid eye movement sleep. My proposal aims to resolve the functional relevance of Kvß2 in the context of sleep and neuronal excitability as well as to dissect the pathophysiology of its knock-out. My hypothesis is that knock-out of Kvß2 either causes chronic sleep loss which leads to seizures or that initial seizures create sleep loss as a side effect. Therefore, I propose a set of experiments narrowing down the functional order in which both symptoms occur, which brain regions are involved in their generation, and how they link to the functional properties of the protein. Answering these questions carries the potential to define a common etiological hub for the emergence of sleep disorders and epilepsy the relationship of which has been long and well established but understood incompletely. It could furthermore identify molecular and circuit targets for the development of treatment strategies at the intersection of sleep disorders and epilepsy.

• DFG Programme: WBP Fellowship
• International Connection: United Kingdom
• Host: Professor Dr. Gero Miesenböck