Mechanisms of local damage Mechanisms of “distant” damage Relevance to human epilepsy Clinical considerations Relevance of animal models for human temporal lobe epilepsy Conclusions

Kainic acid (KA-in Japanese literally the ghost of the sea) was isolated three decades ago from the seaweed Digenea simplex’“’which has been extensively used in post-war Japan to eradicate ascariasis. The active principle of other biological extracts used for the same purpose has also been identified (notably domoic and quisqualic acids, ihid.). The antihelminthic action is shared by other analogues of glutamate in particular those having carboxyl (and carboxymethyl) substituents in the 2 and 3 positions. The next important step was made by Shinozaki and Konishi’“3.‘bl who showed that when microiontophoretically ejected upon cortical neurons these agents have a potent excitatory action, consisting of prolonged spike discharge. Kainate was the most potent analogue.