Epilepsy Linked To Higher Tau And Faster Aging

Source: Brain : a journal of neurology

Summary

This study looked at whether people with epilepsy have higher levels of tau, a protein linked to brain disease, even when they do not have dementia. The researchers studied 75 adults with epilepsy and 47 healthy people of similar age and sex. They used brain scans to look for tau and amyloid, measured blood markers, and analyzed many blood proteins. They also reviewed seizure history and EEG results.

The researchers found that people with epilepsy had higher tau-related signal across several outer brain regions than healthy controls. Amyloid, another protein tied to Alzheimer’s disease, was not clearly different between the groups. Higher tau signal was linked with signs of more severe epilepsy, including slower EEG patterns, seizure activity coming from more than one area, and seizures that continued during the teen years. Blood testing also showed changes in many proteins tied to immune activity, energy use, and cell structure, and people with epilepsy showed signs of faster biological aging in several organs.

These findings suggest that epilepsy may be linked to tau buildup in the brain, and that this may go along with greater disease burden and body-wide changes related to inflammation and aging. This matters because it may help researchers better understand epilepsy and develop future biomarkers or treatments. But the study has limits: it was fairly small, only some participants had both types of brain scans, and the results show links rather than proof that epilepsy causes tau buildup.

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