儿童失神癫痫易感基因的研究

尽管近年来发现有少数非离子通道编码基因参与人类特发性癫痫（idiopathic eplepsies，IE），但更多的遗传学研究证实，离子通道在IE的遗传病理机制中起核心作用。离子通道基因突变是一些罕见类型的单基因遗传IE的常见病因，被称为通道病。但离子通道基因突变仅能解释IE的少数家系或散发病例，更大的难题来自于对复杂遗传IE的研究，它们未知的遗传模式、表型异质性和综合征亚型间不确定的遗传背景重叠限制了遗传图谱的绘制。失神癫痫是常见的IE亚型，呈复杂遗传方式。现共发现有11个基因与失神癫痫有关联，其中有4种编码神经元钙通道亚单位。因此钙通道基因是失神癫痫的重要候选基因。失神癫痫钙通道基因的遗传学研究可能是复杂遗传IE病因研究的最佳切入点，并有利于最终阐明失神癫痫的分子机制。

Research on genes susceptible to childhood absence epilepsy

Despite a few genes that do not encode ion channels have been identified as implicating some kinds of human idiopathic epilepsies(IE) in recent years, but genetic discoveries have shown the ion channels to play a central role in genetic pathomechanism of IE. The gene mutations of ion channels are a common cause of some rare monogenic IE which could be so-called as channelopathies, and able to be applied to account for the questioned epileptic syndrome to minority of families and sporadic cases. However, more frustrating has been from the genetic research on more common IE with complex inheritance due to the unknown mode of inheritance, the phenotypic heterogeneity and the uncertainty of genetic overlap among syndrome subtypes, which have limited gene mapping. Absence epilepsy is a kind of common IE subtype and shows a complex way to inherit. Evidences from heredity investigation indicate that eleven genes are correlated with absence epilepsy, of which four encode the neuronal calcium channel subunits. Therefore, calcium channel genes may be considered as important candidates for involving in absence epilepsy. To focus the genetics research on calcium channel genes of absence epilepsy may be opening an optimal gate to the pathogenetic study of more common IE with complex inheritance, and benefit to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of absence epilepsy finally, one of the more common IE subtypes with complex inheritance.