Alzheimer's disease and epilepsy: insight from animal models

Alzheimer's disease (AD) and epilepsy are separated in the medical community, but seizures occur in some patients with AD, and AD is a risk factor for epilepsy. Furthermore, memory impairment is common in patients with epilepsy. The relationship between AD and epilepsy remains an important question because ideas for therapeutic approaches could be shared between AD and epilepsy research laboratories if AD and epilepsy were related. Here we focus on one of the many types of epilepsy, temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), because patients with TLE often exhibit memory impairment, depression and other comorbidities that occur in AD. Moreover, the seizures that occur in patients with AD may be nonconvulsive, which occur in patients with TLE. Here we first compare neuropathology in TLE and AD with an emphasis on the hippocampus, which is central to both AD and TLE research. Then we compare animal models of AD pathology with animal models of TLE. Although many aspects of the comparisons are still controversial, there is one conclusion that we suggest is clear: some animal models of TLE could be used to help address questions in AD research, and some animal models of AD pathology are bona fide animal models of epilepsy.