New technology to guide epilepsy surgery!

To treat drug-resistant focal epilepsy, resective surgery is been used when the epileptic focus (EF) can be accurately delineated and removed, but intraoperative mapping of EF with electrocorticography is laborious, time-consuming, and highly vulnerable to the effects of anesthesia. 

The researchers demonstrated in this study activated microglia can be reliable biomarkers for EF localization and by leveraging a newly developed ratiometric Raman nanosensor, ultraHOCls, they successfully visualize proinflammatory microglia in live epileptic mice, allowing for precise EF delineation without the interference of anesthesia.

UltraHOCl-guided surgery results in a substantial 61% reduction in total seizure burden in epileptic mouse models compared to electrocorticography-guided surgery and can effectively discriminate epileptic regions from non-epileptic tissues with high sensitivity and specificity.

https://www.cell.com/cell-reports-medicine/fulltext/S2666-3791(25)00228-9

https://sciencemission.com/Ultrabright-ratiometric-Raman-guided-epilepsy-surgery