Abstract

Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder characterized by repeated and spontaneous epileptic seizures, which is not well controlled by current medication. Traditional theory supports that epilepsy results from the imbalance of excitatory glutamate neurons and inhibitory GABAergic neurons. Recently, shreds of evidence from available clinical and preclinical researches suggest that histamine in the central nervous system plays an important role in the modulation of neural excitability and pathogenesis of epilepsy. Many histamine receptor ligands show positive response in animal epilepsy models, among which the H3R antagonist pitolisant even has shown a good anti-epileptic effect in clinical trials. New insights are focusing on the potential action of histamine receptors to control and treat epilepsy. This review summarizes the findings from animal and clinical researches on the role of brain histamine and histamine receptor in epilepsy. Importantly, we further provide perspectives on some possible research directions for future studies.