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Old-age hippocampal sclerosis (HS), characterised by severe neuron loss in hippocampal CA1, is a poorly understood cause of dementia. At present no objective pathological HS criteria exist. In life HS is commonly diagnosed as Alzheimer's disease. HS aetiology is unclear, although it has been associated with both ischaemia and TAR-DNA-binding protein-43 (TDP-43)-related neurodegeneration. Variations in genes GRN, TMEM106B and ABCC9 are proposed as HS risk factors. The aim of this thesis was to investigate epidemiological, clinical, pathological and genetic characteristics of HS in older European populations. 976 brains donated for the Cambridge City over-75s Cohort, the Cognitive Function and Ageing Study and the Finnish Vantaa 85+ study were available for evaluation -including bilateral hippocampi from 302 individuals. A protocol capturing the extent and severity of hippocampal neuron loss was developed, establishing objective HS diagnosis criteria and allowing observation of distinct neuron loss patterns associated with ischaemia and neurodegeneration. 71 HS cases (overall prevalence: 7.3%) were identified. HS was significantly associated with an advanced age at death as well as dementia at the end of life. Neuropsychological and cardiovascular characteristics were similar between HS and AD, except for a longer duration of dementia and more disability in HS. HS was not associated with neurofibrillary tangles, amyloid plaques, or vascular pathologies, but all HS cases evaluated for TDP-43 showed neuronal inclusions in the hippocampal dentate and a high frequency of other glial, neuronal and neurite TDP-43 pathologies. GRN and TMEM106B but not ABCC9 variations were linked to HS. A moderating effect of TDP-43 on this association was detected. HS presented pathologically similarly to frontotemporal dementia cases with TDP-43 (FTLD-TDP) caused by mutations in GRN, but differed from other FTLD-TDP subtypes. Results of this thesis reveal the importance of HS in the oldest old in the population, the key role of TDP-43, as well as providing robust methods to capture HS characteristics for an area that has been under-researched but is clearly vital to understanding dementia in the oldest old.

Notre vision de l'épilepsie du lobe temporal avec sclérose hippocampique a beaucoup évolué grâce aux techniques de neuroimagerie multimodale. Initialement perçue comme maladie restreinte à la lésion, à savoir la sclérose hippocampique (SH), elle est aujourd'hui considérée comme un modèle de pathologie en réseau. Cette thèse a pour but d'approfondir les caractéristiques du réseau sous tendant cette épilepsie.Nous avons pour cela recueilli des données de connectivité structurelle, d'EEG et de données cognitives chez une cohorte de 44 patient avec SH unilatérale (22 droite, 22 gauche) et chez 28 sujets contrôle. Nous avons déterminé les régions d'intérêt corticales et le volume hippocampique avec Freesurfer et la connectivité structurelle (locale ou en réseau) avec MRtrix ou FSL.Trois principaux résultats émergent de ces études :1. La connectivité globale montre un pattern de déconnexion très marqué de l'hémisphère gauche en cas de SH gauche. La SH semble donc s'accompagner d'une atteinte de réseau plus importante lorsqu'elle se situe dans l'hémisphère dominant pour le langage.2. La connectivité hippocampo-thalamique est augmentée du côté de la SH. Cette augmentation semble dysfonctionnelle, car corrélée avec une baisse de fonctions cognitives exécutives. 3.L'EEG de ces patients révèle des anomalies interictales ipsi-latérales qui sont corrélées avec une diminution de fonctions cognitives exécutives. Nos données confirment ainsi le concept de l'épilepsie du lobe temporal en tant que pathologie de réseau. L'atteinte structurelle, mais également cognitive s'étend sur des régions à distance de l'hippocampe et affecte notamment les réseaux de langage de l'hémisphère dominant / Our vision of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) with hippocampal sclerosis has much evolved in recent years. Initially regarded as a disease centered on a single lesion, it is now perceived as a genuine network disease, which we intended to explore with a multimodal approach. We examined structural connectivity, fMRI, EEG and cognitive dysfunction in a cohort of 44 patients with unilateral hippocampal sclerosis (HS, 22 with right, 22 with left HS) and 28 healthy age and gender matched control participants. Cortical regions of interest and hippocampal volumes were determined with Freesurfer, structural connectivity with MRtrix (pairwise disconnections and component effects with Network Based Statistics), or for hippocampal-thalamic connections with FSL. We found a pronounced pattern of disconnections most notably in the left hemisphere of patients with left TLE. Network Based Statistics showed large bi hemispheric clusters lateralized to the diseased side in both left and right temporal lobe epilepsy. We suggest that hippocampal sclerosis is associated with widespread disconnections if situated in the dominant hemisphere. We then determined streamline connections between hippocampus and thalamus and found an increase in connections in relation to the HS. This increase was seemingly dysfunctional as the number of hippocampal-thalamic connections was negatively correlated with performance in executive tasks. EEG analysis revealed predominantly ipsilateral epileptic discharge. The number of sharp waves was highly correlated with a number of executive functions depending on the frontal lobe, hence at distance of the HS. Our data thus confirms the concept of temporal lobe epilepsy as a network disease that finds its expression both in widespread, though lateralized alterations of structural connectivity and in neuropsychological dysfunction way beyond the hippocampus.

Dementia is a clinical state caused by neurodegeneration and characterized by a loss of function in cognitive domains and behavior. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia. Although the amyloid β (Aβ) protein and hyperphosphorylated tau aggregates in the brain are considered to be the key pathological hallmarks of AD, the exact cause of AD is yet to be identified. In addition, clinical diagnoses of AD can be error prone. Many previous studies have compared the clinical diagnosis of AD against the gold standard of autopsy confirmation and shown substantial AD misdiagnosis Hippocampal sclerosis of aging (HS-Aging) is one type of dementia that is often clinically misdiagnosed as AD. AD and HS-Aging are controlled by different genetic architectures. Familial AD, which often occurs early in life, is linked to mainly mutations in three genes: APP, PSEN1, and PSEN2. Late-onset AD (LOAD) is strongly associated with the ε4 allele of apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene. In addition to the APOE gene, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified several single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in or close to some genes associated with LOAD. On the other hand, GRN, TMEM106B, ABCC9, and KCNMB2 have been reported to harbor risk alleles associated with HS-Aging pathology. Although GWAS have succeeded in revealing numerous susceptibility variants for dementias, it is an ongoing challenge to identify functional loci and to understand how they contribute to dementia pathogenesis. Until recently, rare variants were not investigated comprehensively. GWAS rely on genotype imputation which is not reliable for rare variants. Therefore, imputed rare variants are typically removed from GWAS analysis. Recent advances in sequencing technologies enable accurate genotyping of rare variants, thus potentially improving our understanding the role of rare variants on disease. There are significant computational and statistical challenges for these sequencing studies. Traditional single variant-based association tests are underpowered to detect rare variant associations. Instead, more powerful and computationally efficient approaches for aggregating the effects of rare variants have become a standard approach for association testing. The sequence-kernel association test (SKAT) is one of the most powerful rare variant analysis methods. A recently-proposed scan-statistic-based test is another approach to detect the location of rare variant clusters influencing disease. In the first study, we examined the gene-based associations of the four putative risk genes, GRN, TMEM106B, ABCC9, and KCNMB2 with HS-aging pathology. We analyzed haplotype associations of a targeted ABCC9 region with HS-Aging pathology and with ABCC9 gene expression. In the second study, we elucidated the role of the non-coding SNPs identified in the International Genomics of Alzheimer’s Project (IGAP) consortium GWAS within a systems genetics framework to understand the flow of biological information underlying AD. In the last study, we identified genetic regions which contain rare variants associated with AD using a scan-statistic-based approach.

L'épilepsie est une maladie fréquente affectant 0,5 à 1% de la population générale. Elle est caractérisée par des crises récurrentes responsables d'un sévère handicap médical et psychosocial. Les causes de l'épilepsie sont multiples et peuvent être liées notamment à des lésions cérébrales anténatales ou acquises, des causes génétiques ou métaboliques. L'épilepsie du lobe temporal (ELT) est la forme la plus répandue chez l’adulte, le plus souvent associée à une sclérose de l'hippocampe et réfractaire aux traitements antiépileptiques. Si pendant longtemps l'ELT a été perçue comme une pathologie focale centrée sur l'hippocampe sclérosé, de nombreux travaux montrent que les atteintes associées à l'ELT s'étendent bien au-delà de l'hippocampe et du lobe temporal, suggérant une altération plus globale du réseau cérébral structurel impactant le fonctionnement du cerveau. Toutefois, ces atteintes sont encore mal connues. Le développement récent des séquences et du traitement de l’imagerie de diffusion permettent l’acquisition d’images anatomiques du cerveau et la modélisation des fibres de substance blanche. L’architecture du réseau cérébral peut alors être représentée mathématiquement par un graphe, appelé « connectome » structurel, définissant la force des liens structurels (fibres de substance blanche) entre différentes régions du cerveau.L’objectif principal de la thèse est d’identifier les altérations du réseau structurel liées à l’épilepsie, avec un intérêt particulier à l’ELT. L’objectif secondaire est de développer de nouvelles méthodes d’extraction du connectome structurel pour en améliorer la précision anatomique et mieux identifier et localiser les altérations du réseau structurel.Ainsi, dans un premier temps, nous établissons l’état de l’art des méthodes d’extraction et d’analyse du connectome structurel et discutons leurs limites. Nous présentons alors une nouvelle méthode d’extraction du connectome structurel haute-résolution couvrant l’ensemble du cortex et incluant certaines régions sous-corticales, baptisée « high-resolution structural connectome ». L’objectif est de définir un cadre d’analyse du connectome structurel avec une très bonne précision anatomique et de fournir les outils nécessaires pour des études individuelles ou de groupe en tenant compte des contraintes de temps de calcul et d’utilisation de la mémoire et du disque.Dans un deuxième temps, nous analysons le connectome structurel de patients ELT avec sclérose hippocampique latéralisée dans le but de mettre en évidence le réseau structurel pathologique et d’en distinguer les caractéristiques en fonction de la latéralité de la lésion. Nous validons la stabilité et la reproductibilité du connectome structurel haute-résolution sur des sujets sains. La démonstration de son intérêt clinique potentiel est apportée en observant des différences structurelles subtiles entre deux groupes de sujets sains et en identifiant les sous-structures du striatum. Enfin, notre méthode est appliquée dans un contexte clinique pour identifier les altérations de connectivité structurelle du complexe hippocampo-amygdalien, impliqué dans l’ELT, en lien avec la pathologie. Nos travaux ont ainsi permis d’identifier les altérations globales et diffuses du réseau structurel liées à l’ELT, et plus particulièrement ont mis en évidence des disparités importantes selon la latéralité de la pathologie. Nous avons également présenté une nouvelle méthode d’extraction du connectome structurel augmentant considérablement sa précision anatomique et défini les outils nécessaires à l’analyse haute-résolution du connectome structurel. L’intérêt de cette méthode a été démontré par le gain de précision anatomique obtenu pour l’étude de l’architecture cérébrale du sujet sain ou pour une meilleure identification de réseaux pathologiques, ouvrant ainsi de nombreuses perspectives sur la caractérisation de l’architecture cérébrale et son lien sur le fonctionnement du cerveau. / Epilepsy is a frequent disease affecting 0.5 to 1% of the general population, characterized by recurrent seizures responsible for severe medical and psychosocial handicaps. The causes of epilepsy may be antenatal or acquired brain lesions, genetic history or metabolic disorders. Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is the most common medically intractable epilepsy in adults, often associated with hippocampal sclerosis. Although TLE has been perceived for a long time as a hippocampal disorder, many studies show that the disease actually affects brain regions beyond the hippocampus and temporal lobe suggesting diffuse alteration of the brain structural network. However, these alterations are still unknown. Recent advances in diffusion weighted imaging and processing allow for the acquisition of brain anatomical images and the modeling of white matter fibers. Brain network architecture can then be represented mathematically by means of a graph, called “structural connectome”, defining the strength of the structural links (white matter fibers) across brain regions.The purpose of this thesis is to identify structural network alterations associated with epilepsy, in particular TLE. The secondary objective is to develop new methods for extracting the structural connectome in order to increase the anatomical accuracy and better localize network alterations.Therefore, we first review the state of the art of the methods used for extracting and analyzing the structural connectome and establish their limitations. We then introduce a new method to extract the structural connectome with increased anatomical accuracy, which we called “high-resolution structural connectome”. The purpose is to provide a framework to analyze brain connectivity at high-resolution and to define the necessary tools for individual and group analysis, keeping in mind processing time and memory and disk usages.Then, we analyze the structural connectome of TLE patients with hippocampal sclerosis to reveal underlying pathological network, we also highlight pathological network discrepancies between left and right sided lesions. Inter- and intra-subject stability and repeatability of the high-resolution structural connectome are assessed with a cohort of healthy subjects. We demonstrate potential clinical interest by observing subtle structural differences between two groups of healthy subjects and by delineating the sub-fields of the striatum. Finally, our method is applied to the pathological case of TLE and aims at uncover structural connectivity alterations of the hippocampo-amygdalian complex, known to be involved in TLE.In conclusion, we extend our current knowledge on TLE by showing that this is a network disease involving widespread brain regions, whose pattern largely depends on lesion laterality. We also introduce a new method for extracting the structural connectome at high-resolution, considerably increasing the anatomical accuracy. The interest of this method is demonstrated on healthy subjects to better characterize the healthy brain and on the diseased brain to localize more precisely the brain regions associated with the pathology.

This study investigated memory in children with temporal lobe epilepsy and the ability to discern hippocampal dysfunction with conventional memory tests that are typically used to detect more global memory impairment. All data was obtained retrospectively from the epilepsy surgery program at a local children’s hospital. The research population consisted of 54 children with intractable epilepsy of temporal onset, balanced across pathology types (with and without hippocampal disease) and other demographics. Each was given a clinical battery prior to surgical intervention, which included the WRAML/WRAML2 Verbal Learning subtest from which the dependent variables for this study were extracted. The research hypothesis had predicted that memory retention between verbal learning and recall would be worse for participants with pathology that included hippocampal sclerosis than for those with non-hippocampal temporal lobe pathology. A two-way mixed-design ANOVA was used to test the hypothesis, which allowed incorporation of variables of interest related to memory factors, pathology type, and hemispheric laterality, as well as their various interactions. There was a significant main effect for change in the number of words retained from the final learning trial to the delayed recall. Although the interaction between memory retention and pathology type was not statistically significant, the average of the memory scores as it related to pathology by side did show significance. Thus, results did not support the hypothetical relationship between retention and hippocampal function. However, additional exploratory analyses revealed that the final learning trial by itself was associated with hippocampal pathology, which applied only to those participants with left-hemisphere lesions. Logistic regression with the final learning trial correctly classified 74 percent of participants into the appropriate pathology category, with 81 percent sensitivity to hippocampal dysfunction. Mean participant memory scores were nearly one standard deviation below the normative mean for both delayed recall and total learning scaled scores, regardless of pathology type or lesion hemisphericity. Thus, while the conventionally used indices of the WRAML Verbal Learning test are useful for determining overall memory status, they are not specific to pathological substrate. The within-subject main effect showed an expected loss of information across the time of the delay, but overall the recall score showed no association with hippocampal functioning. This study revealed the possibility of measuring hippocampal function at statistically significant group levels using learning scores from a widely used measure of verbal memory, even in participants with intact contralateral mesial temporal structures. It also indicated that hippocampal structures do not play a role during recall measures given after a standard time delay. Data further demonstrated a role of the hippocampus for encoding and transferring information beyond short term/working memory into long term. During the learning process, the hippocampus appears to work in concert with short-term memory systems, but does not take over the encoding process until enough repetitions have occurred to saturate the working memory buffer. This research represents a small, yet important step forward in our understanding of the hippocampus, with potentially important implications for the future study of memory constructs and mensuration.

We have previously devised a semiquantitative grading system for hippocampal sclerosis (HS) in specimens resected for intractable temporal lobe epilepsy. The grades range from zero to four based on the amount and distribution of neuronal loss and gliosis. In the present study hippocampal sections from 25 patients who had temporal lobe epilepsy and had previously been assigned a grade were examined with synaptophysin immunohistochemistry, and the synaptic content in specific hippocampal fields was correlated with the results of the HS grading system. There was evidence of both significant synaptic loss and increased synaptic density in different fields of the hippocampus with increasing HS. A marked decrement of synaptic immunostaining was present in fields CA1 and CA4 that were highly correlated with HS grade. Sector CA4 seemed to respond in a more graded or continuous way to the pathological insults occurring in temporal lobe epilepsy than did CA1, which appeared to exhibit an all or nothing response. Also, while the width of the outer part of the molecular layer of the dentate (mld) gyrus decreased with increasing HS grade, the inner part of the mld became wider and showed an increased synaptic density so that the overall width of the mld was increased in the high-grade group. We conclude that quantitative measurement of synaptic loss in CA1 and CA4 using synaptophysin immunohistochemistry is a sensitive method for detecting HS and correlates well with the empirically derived HS grading scale, with CA4 exhibiting a more graded response than CA1. In addition, a plasticity response in the inner part of the mld in patients with high-grade HS has been confirmed and quantitated.

A epilepsia do lobo temporal (ELT), além de ser o tipo de epilepsia focal mais comum, também é a que tem maior refratariedade à farmacoterapia, correspondendo à 30% dos casos. Se não tratada pode levar à piora da qualidade de vida, déficits cognitivos e risco de morte (ENGEL, 1998). O tratamento padrão para ELT farmacorresistente é a remoção cirúrgica das estruturas envolvidas (ENGEL, 1996), com taxas de cura que podem chegar a 80% (ENGEL, 2001a). Os benefícios da cirurgia são: diminuição da frequência e severidade das crises, diminuição da mortalidade, melhores índices de qualidade de vida. Recomenda-se que pacientes com ELT farmacorresistentes sejam referenciados a um centro de cirurgia de epilepsia para avaliar a possibilidade de intervenção cirúrgica (ENGEL et al., 2003). Em nosso estudo, avaliamos 621 pacientes com epilepsia mesial do lobo temporal, com confirmação histopatológica de esclerose hipocampal, que realizaram ressecção do lobo temporal no Centro de Cirurgia de Epilepsia de Ribeirão Preto (CIREP) entre os anos de 1994 até 2011. Avaliamos os principais fatores preditores que influenciam no sucesso cirúrgico relacionados ao controle das crises epilépticas, através de um estudo longitudinal e retrospectivo. Realizamos o acompanhamento clínico desses pacientes por até 23 anos, com média de 11,6 anos (± 5,3) e encontramos que 73,6% dos pacientes ficaram livres de crises com alteração da consciência (Engel I) e 84,7% tiveram um bom prognóstico cirúrgico (Engel I + II). Esse prognóstico foi relativamente mantido ao longo do tempo em 65 % dos pacientes, após 20 a 23 anos da cirurgia. Encontramos que a história de crise febril foi um fator de bom prognóstico, enquanto que a aura dismnésica e olfatória foram fatores de mau prognóstico. Em relação ao tipo de técnica cirúrgica, a lobectomia temporal anteromesial (com ressecção do polo temporal), obteve significativo melhor prognóstico (78,6% Engel I) em relação à cirurgia que poupa o polo temporal (67,2% Engel I), p=0,002*, sugerindo que as conexões neurais envolvidas na zona epileptogênica podem estar além das estruturas mesiais. Concluímos que a cirurgia para epilepsia é um procedimento seguro, com baixos índices de complicações pós-operatórias e bons resultados em longo prazo. / Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is the most common type of focal epilepsy and the one that has greater refractoriness to pharmacotherapy, corresponding to 30% of the cases. If untreated, it can lead to worsening of quality of life, cognitive deficits and risk of death (ENGEL, 1998). The standard treatment for medically refractory TLE is the surgical removal of the structures involved (ENGEL, 1996), with good outcomes rates that can reach to 80% (ENGEL, 2001a). The benefits of the surgery are: decrease in frequency and severity of seizures, decrease in mortality, better indexes of quality of life and higher rates of return to school and work. It is recommended that medically refractory TLE patients should be referred to an epilepsy surgery center to evaluate the possibility of surgical intervention (ENGEL et al., 2003). In our study, we evaluated 621 patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy secondary to hippocampal sclerosis (MTLE-HS), who underwent a temporal lobectomy at our epilepsy surgery center (CIREP) between the years 1994 to 2011. We evaluated the main predictive factors that influence the surgical outcome, through a longitudinal and retrospective study. We performed the clinical follow-up for up to 23 years and the mean follow-up was 11,6 years (± 5,3). We found that 73,6 % of the patients were free of disabling seizures and 84,7% had a good surgical outcome (Engel I + II). This prognosis was relatively maintained over the time in 65% of patients after 20 to 23 years of surgery. We found that history of febrile seizure was a good prognostic factor, whereas the dysmnesic and olfactory aura were factors of poor outcome. Regarding the type of surgical technique, the anteromesial temporal lobe resection obtained significant better outcomes (78,6% Engel I) in relation to the surgery who preserve the temporal pole (67,2% Engel I), p value = 0,002*, suggesting that the neuronal networks involved in the epileptogenic zone may be beyond mesial structures. We conclude that epilepsy surgery is a safe procedure, with low rates of postoperative complications and good long-term results.

Alta prevalência, farmacorresistência e bom prognóstico cirúrgico são algumas das características clínicas que tornam a epilepsia do lobo temporal mesial com esclerose hipocampal (ELTM-EH) uma das mais importantes formas de epilepsia. Ela é o modelo da epilepsia cirurgicamente curável. Infelizmente, cerca de 10% dos pacientes evoluem com resultado cirúrgico insatisfatório. A ELTM-EH está associada a alterações amplas do perfil de expressão dos microRNAs (miRNAs) do hipocampo. Recentemente, constatou-se a existência de miRNAs estáveis no sangue periférico e em outros fluidos corporais, comprovadamente aplicáveis como biomarcadores, cuja abrangência vai do diagnóstico à resposta terapêutica. Tendo isso em vista, a pesquisa partiu do seguinte questionamento: é possível a identificação, no sangue periférico, de assinaturas moleculares por miRNAs que predigam o resultado do tratamento cirúrgico da ELTM-EH? Por meio de técnicas de biologia molecular, avaliaram-se amostras de sangue e hipocampo de pacientes submetidos à lobectomia temporal anterior em consequência de ELTMEH farmacorresistente. As amostras eram representativas de indivíduos com resultado cirúrgico favorável (Engel IA) e desfavorável (Engel III e IV). Com a técnica de microarray obteve-se o perfil de expressão de miRNAs das amostras triadas e chegou-se a um conjunto de seis miRNAs candidatos a biomarcadores de prognóstico cirúrgico: miR-92b-3p; miR-1238-3p; miR-1181; miR-636; miR- 1229-3p e miR-486-5p. Em seguida, com a técnica de PCR em tempo real, quantificou-se a expressão destes seis miRNAs e, a partir da otimização de um ponto de corte na escala de expressão, cada miRNA circulante foi apreciado como preditor de resultado cirúrgico. Assim, constatou-se hiperexpressão sanguínea dos seis miRNAs, sem distinção estatística entre os grupos Engel IA e Engel III-IV, hiperexpressão hipocampal do miR-486-5p no grupo Engel IA e hipoexpressão hipocampal do miR-636 nos grupos Engel IA e Engel III-IV. Na análise dos miRNAs circulantes como preditores de sucesso cirúrgico, o miR- 1238-3p exibiu uma sensibilidade de 40,00%, especificidade de 92,86% e acurácia de 65,52%. O conjunto miR-1238/miR1181 mostrou sensibilidade de 46,67%, especificidade de 85,71% e acurácia de 65,52%. O único miRNA circulante sondado como preditor de insucesso cirúrgico, o miR-636, revelou sensibilidade de 21,43%, especificidade de 93,33% e acurácia de 58,62% / A high prevalence, drug resistance and good surgical prognosis are some of the clinical characteristics that cause mesial temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampal sclerosis (MTLE-HS) to be one of the most important forms of epilepsy. This condition is the model of surgically curable epilepsy, although unfortunately about 10% of the patients exhibit an unsatisfactory surgical outcome. MTLE-HS is associated with extensive changes in the expression profile of hippocampal microRNAs (miRNAs). It has been recently observed that stable miRNAs exist in peripheral blood and in other body fluids which have been proved to be applicable as biomarkers from diagnosis to therapeutic response. On this basis, the present investigation was based on the following question: is it possible to identify molecular signatures by peripheral blood miRNAS that predict the outcome of surgical treatment of MTLE-HS? Molecular biology techniques were used to evaluate blood and hippocampal samples of patients submitted to anterior temporal lobectomy as a consequence of drug-resistant MTLE-HS. The samples were representative of patients with a favorable (Engel IA) and unfavorable (Engel III and IV) surgical outcome. The microarray technique was used to obtain the expression profile of miRNAs in the samples, with a set of six miRNAs being reached as candidate biomarkers for surgical prognosis: miR-92b-3p, miR-1238- 3p, miR-1181, miR-636, miR-1229-3p, and miR-486-5p. Next, real-time PCR was used to quantitate the expression of these six miRNAs and, based on the optimization of a cut-off point on the expression scale, each circulating miRNA was evaluated as surgical outcome predictor. We observed blood hyperexpression of the six miRNAs with no significant difference between the Engel IA and Engel IIIIV groups, hippocampal hyperexpression of miR-486-5p in the Engel IA group, and hippocampal hypoexpression of miR-636 in the Engel IA and Engel III-IV groups. Analysis of circulating miRNAs as predictors of surgical success revealed that miR-1238-3p exhibited 40.00% sensitivity, 92.86% specificity and 65.52% accuracy. The miR-1238/miR1181 set showed 46.67% sensitivity, 85.71% specificity and 65.52% accuracy. The only circulating miRNA evaluated as a predictor of surgical failure, miR-636, showed 21.43% sensitiviy, 93.33% specificity, and 58.62% accuracy

Alta prevalência, farmacorresistência e bom prognóstico cirúrgico são algumas das características clínicas que tornam a epilepsia do lobo temporal mesial com esclerose hipocampal (ELTM-EH) uma das mais importantes formas de epilepsia. Ela é o modelo da epilepsia cirurgicamente curável. Infelizmente, cerca de 10% dos pacientes evoluem com resultado cirúrgico insatisfatório. A ELTM-EH está associada a alterações amplas do perfil de expressão dos microRNAs (miRNAs) do hipocampo. Recentemente, constatou-se a existência de miRNAs estáveis no sangue periférico e em outros fluidos corporais, comprovadamente aplicáveis como biomarcadores, cuja abrangência vai do diagnóstico à resposta terapêutica. Tendo isso em vista, a pesquisa partiu do seguinte questionamento: é possível a identificação, no sangue periférico, de assinaturas moleculares por miRNAs que predigam o resultado do tratamento cirúrgico da ELTM-EH? Por meio de técnicas de biologia molecular, avaliaram-se amostras de sangue e hipocampo de pacientes submetidos à lobectomia temporal anterior em consequência de ELTMEH farmacorresistente. As amostras eram representativas de indivíduos com resultado cirúrgico favorável (Engel IA) e desfavorável (Engel III e IV). Com a técnica de microarray obteve-se o perfil de expressão de miRNAs das amostras triadas e chegou-se a um conjunto de seis miRNAs candidatos a biomarcadores de prognóstico cirúrgico: miR-92b-3p; miR-1238-3p; miR-1181; miR-636; miR- 1229-3p e miR-486-5p. Em seguida, com a técnica de PCR em tempo real, quantificou-se a expressão destes seis miRNAs e, a partir da otimização de um ponto de corte na escala de expressão, cada miRNA circulante foi apreciado como preditor de resultado cirúrgico. Assim, constatou-se hiperexpressão sanguínea dos seis miRNAs, sem distinção estatística entre os grupos Engel IA e Engel III-IV, hiperexpressão hipocampal do miR-486-5p no grupo Engel IA e hipoexpressão hipocampal do miR-636 nos grupos Engel IA e Engel III-IV. Na análise dos miRNAs circulantes como preditores de sucesso cirúrgico, o miR- 1238-3p exibiu uma sensibilidade de 40,00%, especificidade de 92,86% e acurácia de 65,52%. O conjunto miR-1238/miR1181 mostrou sensibilidade de 46,67%, especificidade de 85,71% e acurácia de 65,52%. O único miRNA circulante sondado como preditor de insucesso cirúrgico, o miR-636, revelou sensibilidade de 21,43%, especificidade de 93,33% e acurácia de 58,62% / A high prevalence, drug resistance and good surgical prognosis are some of the clinical characteristics that cause mesial temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampal sclerosis (MTLE-HS) to be one of the most important forms of epilepsy. This condition is the model of surgically curable epilepsy, although unfortunately about 10% of the patients exhibit an unsatisfactory surgical outcome. MTLE-HS is associated with extensive changes in the expression profile of hippocampal microRNAs (miRNAs). It has been recently observed that stable miRNAs exist in peripheral blood and in other body fluids which have been proved to be applicable as biomarkers from diagnosis to therapeutic response. On this basis, the present investigation was based on the following question: is it possible to identify molecular signatures by peripheral blood miRNAS that predict the outcome of surgical treatment of MTLE-HS? Molecular biology techniques were used to evaluate blood and hippocampal samples of patients submitted to anterior temporal lobectomy as a consequence of drug-resistant MTLE-HS. The samples were representative of patients with a favorable (Engel IA) and unfavorable (Engel III and IV) surgical outcome. The microarray technique was used to obtain the expression profile of miRNAs in the samples, with a set of six miRNAs being reached as candidate biomarkers for surgical prognosis: miR-92b-3p, miR-1238- 3p, miR-1181, miR-636, miR-1229-3p, and miR-486-5p. Next, real-time PCR was used to quantitate the expression of these six miRNAs and, based on the optimization of a cut-off point on the expression scale, each circulating miRNA was evaluated as surgical outcome predictor. We observed blood hyperexpression of the six miRNAs with no significant difference between the Engel IA and Engel IIIIV groups, hippocampal hyperexpression of miR-486-5p in the Engel IA group, and hippocampal hypoexpression of miR-636 in the Engel IA and Engel III-IV groups. Analysis of circulating miRNAs as predictors of surgical success revealed that miR-1238-3p exhibited 40.00% sensitivity, 92.86% specificity and 65.52% accuracy. The miR-1238/miR1181 set showed 46.67% sensitivity, 85.71% specificity and 65.52% accuracy. The only circulating miRNA evaluated as a predictor of surgical failure, miR-636, showed 21.43% sensitiviy, 93.33% specificity, and 58.62% accuracy