Mahmoud Elshal

Pharmacologist at Mansoura University who tests whether existing drugs can protect the brain, liver and other organs in rodent models of disease

Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mansoura University (papers 2024–2026)

Epilepsy often develops over time after an injury or a series of seizures, a process called epileptogenesis. In the Atlas study MADKOUR2026, Mahmoud Elshal was last author, the position that usually marks the senior scientist who supervised the work. Rats received repeated small doses of PTZ, a chemical that lowers the seizure threshold, so that seizures grow stronger with each dose (kindling). Rats pre-treated with carvedilol, a common heart and blood-pressure drug, had lower seizure scores, less damage in the hippocampus, the memory region of the brain, and less inflammation driven by the NLRP3 inflammasome. Levels of PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway proteins changed at the same time. The authors state that these are associations and do not prove that mTOR signalling causes the benefit.

Elshal works in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology of the Faculty of Pharmacy at Mansoura University in Egypt. PubMed lists dozens of papers with this affiliation, most of them rodent studies that repurpose approved drugs. In 2026 the same team reported that empagliflozin, a diabetes drug, reduced PTZ-induced seizures in rats and strengthened the effect of the antiseizure drug levetiracetam, and a 2024 study in mice found that the diabetes drug sitagliptin protected the liver against chemically induced cholestasis, a blockage of bile flow. No official profile page was found.

Milestones in the Atlas

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