Computer modeling of epilepsy: opportunities for drug discovery

Analysis of the brain as a dynamical system can assist drug development for dynamical diseases such as epilepsy. The pathological trajectories that make up a seizure differ significantly from the physiological trajectories of normal brain function. These trajectories depend on parameters – conductances and time constants of ion channels and synapses – that can be modified by drugs. Drug development will benefit by taking account of the way in which multiple parameters – multiple drug targets – produce trajectory alterations. This may lead us to reconsider potential benefits of multi-target polypharmacy, of drug cocktails, and of so-called ‘dirty drugs’ (drugs with activity at multiple locations).