Melissa Benson

University of Queensland, Qld
Rotary Club of Koo Wee Rup/Lang Lang
Epilepsy 2011 and 2012
 
Melissa Benson was born in the inland Queensland city of Toowoomba in 1989 and has since completed high-school at St Ursula’s College before moving to Brisbane in 2007 to attend The University of Queensland. Whilst completing her undergraduate degree Melissa lived on university campus at St John’s college for 3 years followed by a year living with friends in the St Lucia area. Melissa graduated from her 4 year degree in late 2010 receiving a Bachelor of Biotechnology majoring in Drug Design and Development with First Class Honours.
 
It was during her third undergraduate year that Melissa joined her current laboratory group, to complete a small research subject and decided that she had a passion for the research and academic life. The Epilepsy Research Group, led by Dr Karin Borges, is a small group housed within the university’s School of Biomedical Sciences.
Melissa completed her honours year in 2010 in this laboratory conducting full-time research into an experimental compound developed at the University as a potential anti-epileptic drug. During the 2010 year Melissa won a University wide competition sponsored by UniQuest, “Trailblazer”, which was centred on the commercialisation potential of her current research and involved presenting a short pitch to a panel of judges. She was awarded the open category major trophy which included a $7500 cash prize. She also presented a poster at the Australasia Oceanic Epilepsy Congress (AOEC) meeting hosted in Melbourne in October detailing some of her work. Melissa is to conduct her PhD also in this laboratory beginning in 2011.

SUMMARY OF PROJECT:  
Intranasal delivery of phospholipase A2 inhibitors for the treatment of epilepsy
I will investigate the role of phospholipases A2, key players in inflammation, in epilepsy. I will be using inhibitors of these enzymes in both acute and chronic animal epilepsy models. Preliminary research in our and other laboratories has shown that there is a connection between inflammation and epilepsy. My preliminary data show that a secretory phospholipase A2 inhibitor is highly potent when given intranasally or subcutaneously in an acute seizure model. This proposal will further research the role of phospholipases A2 in epilepsy to allow us and other researchers to develop new effective antiepileptic drugs without side effects.
 
Another key problem to be addressed is the delivery of antiepileptic drugs to the central nervous system. Preliminary studies by us and others have shown that intranasal delivery is effective to deliver antiepileptic drugs directly to the brain with anticonvulsant action. Here, I will further optimise a successful intranasal delivery protocol for use in epilepsy models. This includes a pharmacokinetic study regarding drug distribution following intranasal delivery to determine the time course of brain concentrations of antiepileptic drugs following this administration route. This research is highly innovative, as there are only few studies regarding intranasal antiepileptic drug administration so far.
 
Ultimately, it is hoped this project will lead to the development of a new fast acting intranasally administered anticonvulsant drug to prevent seizure onset in emergency situations, which may then progress to clinical trials. Intranasal delivery should have less side effects than current oral drugs. As the phospholipase A2 inflammatory pathway has not previously been targeted to treat epilepsy, it is also hoped that this research may unveil compounds or physiological targets which play a key role in therapy-resistant epilepsies. Better understanding of the mechanisms underlying these epilepsies is necessary for the development of effective future therapies. This would be extremely beneficial given that about 50% of epilepsy patients still suffer from seizures despite drug treatment.