Widely Used Pain Reliever And Epilepsy Drug Gabapentin Prevents Synapses Formation
Synapses are the connections between nerve cells where through neurons transmit electrical signals or messages to one another. And although synapses formation occurs all throughout your life, you will never again experience the same eruption of synapses formation as you do during early development.
“It is commonly agreed that the precise placement and strength of each person’s trillions of synaptic connections closely maps with that person’s cognitive, emotional and behavioral makeup.”
A key molecular player in guiding the formation of synapses have been identified by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and this discovery has raised concern about the use of the antiseizure drug Gabepentin during pregnancy.
Gabepentin originally developed for epilepsy is also used as pain reliever, especially for people suffering from chronic pain.
Professor and chair of neurobiology Ben Barres MD, PhD said “We have solved the longstanding mystery of how this blockbuster drug acts.”
In 2005 Professor Barres and colleagues discovered that the protein thrombospondin, secreted by astrocytes, are essential for synapses formation. In this most recent study they demonstrated how thrombospondin binds to a receptor named alpha2delta-1, found on neurons outer membranes. Neurons lacking alpha2delta-1 were unable to form synapses.
They also grew neurons bioengineered to overexpresss alpha2delta-1 in a dish, neurons grew twice as many synapses when stimulated with thrombospondin than unmodified neurons.
Barres and colleagues found that the drug Gabepentin prevented the formation of new synapses by binding to alpha2delta-1, preventing thrombospondin from binding to this receptor. Because adult brains don’t form many synapses, produces very little thrombospondin and Gabepentin did not dissolve pre-existing synapses, it does not pose an enormous risk to adults. However, because the majority of synapses are formed during development and the early years, Gabepentin poses a serious threat for a developing baby.
Professor Barres said “It’s a bit scary that a drug that can so powerfully block synapse formation is being used in pregnant women… there is no question that pregnant women with epilepsy who have been advised by their neurologists to continue their anticonvulsant treatment with Gabapentin during their pregnancy should definitely remain on this drug until instructed otherwise. But there is no long term registry being kept to track Gabapentin-exposed babies. Our findings are saying that we need to be following up on these newborns so that their cognitive performance can be studied as they grow older.”
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091008123226.htm
This post was written by
Jeanette Bolvary Web Editor and Author. Has written numerous guest articles for other websites. She is Writer and Editor for the sites How To Hair Removal and Born Smart and is also Author of the book with the same title. 
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It’s interesting that doctors would continue their patients on medication potentially harmful to the newborn’s development. While refraining from pain-relieving drugs might not be a hard task, I wonder what you can do with the epileptic patients…sounds complicated.
Hi Jeanette.
It’s cool to see details like this. An inhibitor like that can’t be a good sign for the young children, unless it doesn’t transfer to them. Studies of information like this tend to lead to eye-opening results, but they don’t show up until someone takes the initiative to check for a link between one action and long-term effects from it.
What one mother uses today might one day be looked at as terrible for mothers to use at a future date, simply based on new information.
Also, this brings to light why science tends to move at a certain pace, because a lot of health discoveries require time to pass to see what the reaction is in people’s bodies, and it can take months or years to analyze where cause-and-effect is in play, or if there is very little correlation.
Thanks for this.
Hi Corey, yes it is complicated. Whilst they may not be able to replace the drug for epilepsy sufferers during pregnancy, the drug is also widely used for pain and drug companies should make sure it is labeled with the appropriate warnings. Thanks for your comments.
Hi Armen, the pace of science is often very frustrating for me as non-scientist, but they do a fantastic job and as you say time is needed to measure and analyze results.