Malaria, seizures and genes

Our old genome. When talking about seizures and genes, “malaria” is usually not the first thing that comes to mind. However, malaria-associated seizures are a major cause of neurological disability in Sub-Saharan Africa. Given the frequency of malaria infections on a worldwide scale, Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite causing malaria, is probably one of the most frequent causes of acute seizures. Our genome has adapted to dealing with parasites over evolutionary time and several disease-causing mutations are thought to be relatively frequent, as they also confer resistance to malaria. For malaria-associated seizures, family studies show an increase in epilepsy in relatives, suggesting that these parasite-induced epileptic seizures may also have a genetic predisposition. A recent study in Epilepsia now investigates malaria candidate polymorphisms as genetic risk factors for malaria-associated seizures. Continue reading