• Ozlem Ergul Erkec, Aysel Milanlıoğlu, Ahmet Ufuk Komuroglu, Mehmet Kara, Zubeyir Huyut, and Sıddık Keskin.
• Van Yüzüncü Yıl University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Physiology - Van, Turkey.
• Rev Assoc Med Bras (1992). 2021 Feb 1; 67 (2): 207-212.

ObjectiveEpilepsy is a common disorder that affects the nervous systems of 1% of worldwide population. In epilepsy, one-third of patients are unresponsive to current drug therapies and develop drug-resistant epilepsy. Alterations in ghrelin, nesfatin-1, and irisin levels with epilepsy were reported in previous studies. Vasoactive intestinal peptide is among the most common neuropeptides in the hippocampus, which is the focus of the seizures in temporal lobe epilepsy. However, there is also lack of evidence of whether these four neuropeptide levels are altered with drug resistant temporal lobe epilepsy or not. The aim herein was the evaluation of the serum levels of nesfatin-1, ghrelin, irisin, and Vasoactive intestinal peptide in drug-resistant temporal lobe epilepsy patients and temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) without drug resistance, and to compare them to healthy controls.MethodsThis cross-sectional study group included 58 temporal lobe epilepsy patients (24 with drug resistant temporal lobe epilepsy and 34 with temporal lobe epilepsy who were not drug-resistant) and 28 healthy subjects. Nesfatin-1, ghrelin, irisin, and Vasoactive intestinal peptide serum levels were determined using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.ResultsThe serum ghrelin levels of patients with drug resistant temporal lobe epilepsy were seen to have significantly decreased when compared to those of the control group (p<0.05). Serum nesfatin-1, vasoactive intestinal peptide, and irisin levels were seen to have decreased in the drug resistant temporal lobe epilepsy group when compared to those of the control and temporal lobe epilepsy groups; however, the difference was non-significant (p>0.05).ConclusionsThe results herein suggested that ghrelin might contribute to the pathophysiology of drug resistant temporal lobe epilepsy. However, further studies are needed to confirm this hypothesis.

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