A gene that causes a rare but severe form of epilepsy in people is also found in highly bred dogs, which could lead to new ways to treat the condition, an international team of researchers said on Thursday.
Dr. Berge Minassian of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada and colleagues in the United States, France and Britain found the gene in purebred dachsunds, and were able to breed it out of them.
Writing in the journal Science, they said they hoped their findings could lead to treatments for epilepsy in people.
"Epilepsy afflicts 1 percent of humans and 5 percent of dogs," they wrote.
"More than 5 percent of purebred miniature wire-haireddachshunds in the United Kingdom suffer an autosomal recessive progressive myoclonic epilepsy, which we show to be Lafora disease, the severest form of teenage-onset epilepsy in humans."
In dogs, the disease was much less severe than in humans.
The dachshunds with Lafora disease had a mutation in the EPM2B gene that prevents the gene from functioning. It takes two faulty copies of the gene, one from each parent, to cause epilepsy.
The mutation was found across dogs but not in close dog relatives such as bears, raccoons or skunks, the researchers said. Cats also lack the mutation.
{{/usCountry}}The mutation was found across dogs but not in close dog relatives such as bears, raccoons or skunks, the researchers said. Cats also lack the mutation.
{{/usCountry}}They said their study at the very least showed that dogs can be used to study the epilepsy and to look for better treatments.
In 2003 Minassian's team found the EPM2B gene was associated with Lafora disease. A closely related gene called EPM2A can also cause the epilepsy, which causes seizures and progressive brain damage and kills within about 10 years.