12 November 2012 Last updated at 12:11 ET By James Gallagher Health and science reporter, BBC News
Adding "calm down" genes to hyperactive brain cells has completely cured rats of epilepsy for the first time, say UK researchers.
They believe their approach could help people who cannot control their seizures with drugs.
The study, published in the journal Science Translation Medicine, used a virus to insert the new genes into a small number of neurons.
About 50 million people have epilepsy worldwide.
However, drugs do not work for up to 30% of them. The alternatives include surgery to remove the part of the brain that triggers a fit or to use electrical stimulation.
The brain is alive with electrical communication with individual neurons primed to fire off new messages. However, if a group of neurons become too excited they can throw the whole system into chaos leading to an epileptic seizure.
Researchers at University College London have developed two ways of manipulating the behaviour of individual cells inside the brain in order to prevent those seizures.
Both use viruses injected into the brain to add tiny sections of DNA to the genetic code of just a few thousand neurons.
One method boosts the brain cells' natural levels of inhibition in order to calm them down.
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'Calm down' genes treat epilepsy