oa Editorial [Hot Topic: Recent Developments in the Drug Discovery of Epilepsy (Guest Editor: Waquar Ahsan)]

It has been my great pleasure to present before you the special issue that is intended to cover all major aspects of research devoted to the medicinal chemistry of anticonvulsant agents. The past few years have seen much progress in terms of research aiming to the new drug discovery of epilepsy. The number of publications in this field has risen steadily with novel and important results being reported in a variety of high impact factor journals. Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disorder of the brain that affects people in every country of the world. It is characterized by recurrent seizures - which are physical reactions to sudden, usually brief, excessive electrical discharges in a group of brain cells. Around 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy and interestingly nearly 90% of the people with epilepsy are found in developing regions. Recent studies in both developed and developing countries have shown that up to 70% of newly diagnosed children and adults with epilepsy can only be successfully treated. The search for new antiepileptic drug that is cheaper, safer and more effective continues to be an area of interest for the medicinal chemists worldwide. This special issue includes contributions from many leading figures in this area. First contribution to this issue is by Zuliani et al. who have identified the sodium channel blockers as a therapeutic target for treating epilepsy. Various currently used antiepileptic drugs that act by blocking the sodium channels have been described and it also covers the recently published literature on various anticonvulsant agents that act by blocking the sodium channel....