Exploring multi-omics strategies for herbal treatment of drug-resistant epilepsy: a comprehensive review

Epilepsy affects approximately 70 million people worldwide. Yet scientists have a partial understanding of the disease pathophysiology due to its heterogenic nature. About 70% of cases of epilepsy are treatable with FDA-approved anti-epileptic drugs while temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampus sclerosis (TLE-HS) is drug resistant. Numerous herbs have been noted for their potential anti-convulsant properties. Yet, due to the scarcity of experimental data, there is an urgent need to conduct thorough investigations into these herbs for their practical use in treating TLE-HS. In-depth multi-omics research is needed for targeted TLE-HS therapy, focusing on cornu ammonis subregions, dentate gyrus, and also genetically glutamate, and γ-aminobutyric acid receptors. Animal models, due to the lack of human brain tissue, enable homogeneous sample selection, comparable groups, and ample tissue for in-vitro and ex-vivo studies. Consequently, it becomes feasible to examine the effectiveness of herbs on individual brain regions at the molecular level, paving the way for the potential development of drug interventions to treat TLE-HS.