Study in mice shows how ketogenic diet reduces seizures
Feb 28th 2026
A Washington University study in mice shows the ketogenic diet weakens excitatory signaling and boosts inhibition in brain circuits, revealing cellular targets that might allow drug treatments to reproduce the diet's anti-seizure effects without strict dieting.
- WashU researchers found hundreds of gene activity changes in the hippocampus of mice on a ketogenic diet.
- The diet lowered excitatory neurotransmission and increased inhibitory signaling in brain circuits.
- Neurons from keto-fed mice had fewer synaptic vesicles carrying excitatory neurotransmitters.
- Those changes produced an overall dampening of neural communication that could explain seizure reduction.
- Researchers say the molecular changes could be mimicked by therapies that avoid the diet's severe restrictions and the study appears in Cell Reports.