Buckinx A, Pierre A, Van Den Herrewegen Y, et al. - This study was undertaken to determine if the ghrelin receptor (ghrelin-R) agonist macimorelin is antiepileptogenic in the pharmacoresistant intrahippocampal kainic acid (IHKA) mouse model. Unilateral IHKA injection induced status epilepticus (SE) in C57BL/6 mice. Mice were given macimorelin (5 mg/kg) or saline intraperitoneally twice daily for two weeks beginning 24 hours after SE, followed by a two-week wash-out period. Mice were continuously monitored with an electroencephalogram, and neuroprotection and gliosis were assessed at the end of the experiment. While the full ghrelin-R agonist macimorelin was neither antiepileptogenic nor disease-modifying, this is the first study to show anticonvulsant effects in the IHKA model of drug-refractory temporal lobe epilepsy. Such findings suggest that macimorelin could be used as a novel treatment option for seizure suppression in pharmacoresistant epilepsy.