Something unusual occurred in a Cronutt sea lion during epilepsy treatment story after the aquatic animal underwent an investigational treatment.
As indicated in an IFL Science! report, the sea lion species that were unable to eat following epileptic seizures, a groundbreaking procedure was performed to transplant healthy brain pig cells into the damaged cells into the Cronutt sea lion's impaired brain.
Exceptionally, the method has proven a success for the said sea lion. According to a UCSF Magazine report, a considerable amount of brain function return has been seen since the transplant.
Now, zero-seizure a year on, what's described in this report as the "plucky pinniped" has left scientists wondering if the same method could be effective in humans.
Cronutt's Epilepsy
The epilepsy story of the Cronutt sea lion started with an unfortunate confrontation with an algal and bacterial boom off California's coast that was packing the neurotoxin domoic acid.
A study conducted in 2013 and published in the Journal of Comparative Neurology showed that this particular exposure can lead to brain damage in California sea lions mimicking that humans with the most typical form of epilepsy called "temporal lobe epilepsy."
Such an impairment brought on an incapacitating series of symptoms for Cronutt, who was taken in by Six Flags the Discovery Kingdom located in Vallejo, California.
By 2020, it appeared as if euthanasia might be the ideal choice, as the condition of the sea lion failed to improve despite veterinaries' best initiatives.
200,000 Cells Delivered via 4 Injections
The Cronutt sea lion was registered into an experimental therapy initiated by University of California San Francisco's William K. Bowes Junior Professor of Neuroscience Research Dr. Scott Baraban.
Essentially, the treatment uses neurons identified as medical ganglionic eminence cells taken from pig embryos. Such cells function as inhibitory neurons in the hippocampus of a pig, dampening the hyperactivity type shown in epilepsy.
The hope was that, by inoculating the cells into the said sea lion, he could see the same advantages in mice experiments, which proved to cure epilepsy completely.
Following the establishment that the left side of the hippocampus of the Cronutt was the most affected, surgeons were able to deliver 200,000 cells via four inoculations, not to mention hoped for the best.
Seizure-Free After Treatment
Despite the sea lion's severity of the condition before the procedure, Cronutt has been observed to have favorable results, staying seizure-free a year following the treatment, not to mention going back to a healthier weight.
While the therapy cannot upturn the damage resulting from its exposure to domoic acid, it seems effective in preventing further hyperactivity that could have possibly cut its life short.
According to chief scientist officer Jacqueline French from the Epilepsy Foundation, what the researchers did here is essential and suggests that there are substitute ways for epilepsy treatment.
Nevertheless, it remains to be seen if such a cure will consistently be helpful in sea lions before it can even be considered for human tests.
French, also a neurologist at New York University, to National Geographic, concluded there would be lots of experimentation to guarantee that what's being done is "going to help" rather than harm.
Related information about the Cronutt sea lion getting surgery to reverse epilepsy is shown on CBS Evening News's YouTube video below:
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