Texas A&M professor: 'This is opening gates to things that we could not even imagine when we started this research'

Texas A&M Professor of Neuroscience D. Samba Reddy helped to develop the first treatment for rare types of refractory epilepsy, according to Texas A&M Today.

Once an educator and researcher at one of the most acclaimed universities in India, Reddy received a lifechanging letter from the U.S. National Institutes of Health in 1998, the article said. Top NIH scientist Dr. Michael Rogawski had invited Reddy to his lab as a visiting scientist. While he had never heard of the NIH before, Reddy eventually decided to stay at the institution for one to two years.

Today, 24 years later, Reddy is working for Texas A&M as a Regents professor of neuroscience and experimental therapeutics, engineering medicine, biomedical engineering and veterinary integrative bioscience, according to the article.

He is also the founding director of the Texas A&M Institute of Pharmacology and Neurotherapeutics, and his research focuses on pharmaceutical therapies for epilepsy. He has demonstrated a significant interest in women's brain health, specifically catamenial epilepsy, a condition that becomes more pronounced at different stages of one's menstrual cycle and is tied to neurosteroid deficiency.

Reddy has spent a large portion of his career studying ganaxolone, a synthetic neurosteroid that can address such deficiencies and therefore has the potential to treat specific types of epilepsy. Reddy's research into ganaxolone revealed the compound was successful, allowing it to be tested in human patients during clinical trials, the article said.

In March 2022, following successful trials, ganaxolone (under the brand name Ztalmy) was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for clinical use in CDKL5-deficient epilepsy.

“It is a lifetime achievement,” Reddy said. “This is opening gates to things that we could not even imagine when we started this research.”

In another milestone, he also was active in the development of brexanolone, the first FDA-approved neurosteroid used to treat post-partum depression, the article said.

Reddy's current focus remains on expanding the clinical applications of ganaxolone and developing synthetic neurosteroids with increased effectiveness. He also hopes to tackle other types of seizures such as post-traumatic epilepsy caused by traumatic brain injuries, according to the article.

Additionally, through a combination of a $51 million Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) grant and a partnership with various institutions and companies, the article said, Reddy is leading a phase 3 clinical study examining whether ganaxolone can treat status epileptics. This is a seizure that exceeds 5 minutes and involves a loss of consciousness, which can cause serious brain injury or death.

Reddy's research is funded by the NIH's National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and partially supported by the U.S. Department of Defense.