New York residents who have sustained a brain injury and neuroscience aficionados
alike may be interested in findings recently published by the Cleveland
Clinic and University of Rochester Medical Center that may yield new treatment
options as well as a shift in thinking regarding
brain injuries. The prevalent thinking up until now has held that conditions such as
a traumatic brain injury are the inevitable result of repeated physical
trauma to the brain itself, but the new research indicates that an autoimmune
response gone haywire may be the culprit behind brain degeneration exhibited
by those who have sustained repeated concussions.
Nearly 70 college football players from New York and Ohio participated
in the study, and a group of 10 additional players from the University
of Rochester received diffusion tensor scans, similar to MRIs but more
advanced, in addition to the standard cognitive and blood tests all participants
received at each phase of the study. The blood draws were to measure the
respective levels of a protein known as S100B, a biomarker for traumatic
brain injury, which enters the bloodstream when the blood brain barrier
between the brain and bloodstream opens.
The research found that S100B was present in the athletes' bloodstreams
even when none of them sustained a concussion, indicating that minor blows
can open the blood-brain barrier; further, the protein was found to inhabit
dendric cells, which activate autoimmune responses. Apparently, as S100B
enters the bloodstream, it triggers an autoimmune response in which the
body creates antibodies that in turn attack the brain cells, causing degeneration
and other symptoms of brain trauma. Consequently, the greater the level
of the protein in the blood, the greater the number of blows each player
sustained. Cognitive tests and blood draws confirmed these correlations
as did the advanced brain scans.
These findings may someday yield effective treatments, such as vaccines
to regulate S100B levels, for individuals who have sustained a traumatic
brain injury. In the meantime, however, rehabilitation and medical care
for brain injuries can be extremely costly and take months or even years.
If the injury was caused by another party, a skilled Woodbridge personal
injury lawyer can assist with filing a claim to secure compensation for
these expenses.