470 Senolytic therapies as treatments for posttraumatic epilepsy

Abstract

Objectives/Goals: Increased numbers of senescent cells have been detected in both traumatic brain injury and epilepsy, suggesting them as targets for therapeutic intervention for treating posttraumatic epilepsy (PTE) and underscoring the need for innovative methods to identify and target senescent cells as a means of alleviating pathology. Methods/Study Population: C57BL/6 mice will receive a single controlled cortical impact (CCI) before having their brains removed at 1 week, 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 1 month, 2 months, and 4 months post injury (n = 5 per time point). Brain sections will then be co-labelled for glial and senescent markers to observe which cells begin to express senescent markers at various time points. We will also perform single-cell RNA sequencing to observe genetic changes associated with both TBI and epileptogenesis. Mice will also be treated with navitoclax, a BCL2 inhibitor being investigated as a senolytic agent, to determine if treatment results in decreased senescence and epileptogenesis, as well as improved behavioral outcomes. Results/Anticipated Results: Preliminary data revealed that senescent microglia begin to arise in the mouse hippocampus as early as 1 week post injury and continue to increase in concentration over the course of the following month, with up to 25% of microglia expressing p16, a known marker of senescence. We anticipate that further staining will reveal senescent astrocytes and neurons in a similar time-dependent manner. Further, we hypothesize that the single-cell sequencing of microglia from injured mice will reveal alterations to the expression of genes associated with neuronal excitability, inflammation, and/or synaptic modeling, features known to be associated with epilepsy. Finally, we anticipate treatment with navitoclax will alleviate the senescent phenotype, resulting in decreased epileptogenesis and improved behavioral outcomes. Discussion/Significance of Impact: Considering the lack of any studies examining senescent cell prevalence in PTE, these data will be the first to identify these cells as etiological factors in PTE onset, as well as druggable targets for improving pathological outcomes in PTE patients.