Caloric restriction (CR) has anti-epileptic effects in different animal models, at least partially due to inhibition of the mechanistic or mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway. Adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) inhibits mTOR cascade function if energy levels are low. Since hyper-activation of mTOR participates in epilepsy, its inhibition results in beneficial anti-convulsive effects. A way to attain this is to activate AMPK with metformin. The effects of metformin, alone or combined with CR, on the electrical kindling epilepsy model and the mTOR cascade in the hippocampus and the neocortex were studied. Combined metformin plus CR beneficially affected many kindling aspects, especially those relating to generalized convulsive seizures. Therefore, metformin plus CR could decrease measures of epileptic activity in patients with generalized convulsive seizures. Patients that are obese, overweight or that have metabolic syndrome in addition to having an epileptic disease are an ideal population for clinical trials to test the effectiveness of metformin plus CR.
Keywords: Caloric restriction; Electrical kindling; Epilepsy; Metformin; mTOR signaling pathway.