Canalopatías: un nuevo concepto en la etiología de las epilepsias

Until a few years ago, epilepsies were classified in idio­ pathic, cryptogenic and symptomatic, in relationship, res­ pectively, with their presumably genetic character, to the lack of knowledge of their etiology or to the link with a demonstrated cause. In recent years, it has been demons­ trated among the former that some mutations in the animo acid sequences that conform the ionic channels constitute the substrate of several epileptic syndromes. These disco­ veries stress the genetic characteristic of some epileptic syn­ dromes and are simultaneously being used for the deve­ lopment of drugs whose anti-epileptic effect arises from the actions that they have in the ionic channels.