Archive for July, 2008
Your Weekly Tech Report
This week’s technology spotlight is on an interesting assistive device called a cerebral interface or brain-computer interface (BCI)…
The Christopher & Dana Reeve Paralysis Act, S.3297 (CDRPA) has passed the House and is now awaiting the Senate vote. The Christopher Reeve Foundation is asking for your help in passing this important package.
According to the foundation’s Website, the CDRPA “has three components that support and enhance paralysis research, rehabilitation an quality of life programs.”
In a recent article on PhysOrg.com, MIT researchers are spotlighted for finding stem cells in the spinal cord that may be able to be pushed to turn into healing cells instead of scarring cells. This would help with the development of non-surgical treatments for spinal cord injuries (SCI).
The stem cells under consideration are called ependymal cells. On their own they are slow to proliferate and promote regeneration on their own, but when grown in a lab they have been found to restore some degree of function in paralyzed rodents and primates…
This week’s resource is the Traumatic Brain Injury Model System. We have been talking about ways to increase your brain’s ability to recall and process information after a TBI, and this site has some good data that can help with the process…
An unusual path to brain damage:
In the news these last few days have been versions of a story about a woman who suffered brain damage from a detox diet she was on. The British woman, Dawn Page, was taking a nutritionist’s advice and ingesting large amounts of water while cutting back on salt intake.
The resulting sodium deficiency caused an epileptic fit that lead to permanent brain damage. Page was given a settlement by the nutritionist’s insurance company, but that didn’t exactly make up for the memory damage, speech difficulties and loss of concentration that Page now lives with…
It’s impossible for those who have never experienced a life altering and debilitating injury to imagine what it’s like to go through the grief of losing your ability to walk, stand or even utilize the hands that you never gave a thought to before. For the thousands who sustain a paralyzing injury every year, this reality is one that is all too real…
Q: Since my brain injury, I have memory loss and difficulty concentrating. Is there anything I can do to improve this?
A: There was a time when doctors assumed that the brain, once damaged, couldn’t regain any of it’s previous functions, but thankfully we have progressed beyond that limited evaluation.
Choosing the right rehabilitation facility is one of the most important decisions a survivor of a brain or spinal cord injury will make. That’s because the type and quality of care will have a significant impact on the patient’s long-term outcome.
A good rehabilitation center should offer the survivor of a brain or spinal cord injury a combination of specialized medical care needed to return to the highest level of function, as well as the inspiration and strength needed to cope with difficult injuries…
We’ve mentioned brain plasticity in a couple of our post regarding brain injury and brain repair, so this post is going to delve into exactly what this term means and why it’s so important…
A recent article in BioWorld Today by Donna Young discuses the difficulties that traumatic brain injury (TBI) research faces when looking for potential investors.
It would seem that financial backers are turned off by past drug failures that are brain injury specific – strokes, brain illnesses and brain trauma. Harry Tracy who runs NI Research, a neurological focused consulting firm, cites 50 stroke drugs that failed over the past 10 years. Tracy says that this is because of the difficulty in conducting clinical trials as there are a variety of reactions to not only the drugs but the injuries themselves.
This lack of ready progress, high cost and level of complexity discourages potential investors from TBI research, which detrimentally effects millions every year. Larry Glass, CEO of Neuren Pharmaceuticals Ltd. says that TBI is second only to hemorrhage as a cause of death for soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Glass believes that while there are initial complications and expenses involved, “the potential for returns are phenomenal” which is why his company is partnering with the U.S. Army to develop the drug NNZ-2566. This drug will hopefully work to prevent secondary damage to brain cells, reducing the degree of damage sustained by the initial TBI.
There is hope – in May lawmakers introduced a bill intended to add $75 million to the annual amount of federal TBI research funding. Not a significant amount when compared to the need, this money will still benefit some areas of vital development and research, perhaps providing the little bit extra needed for some lab to come up with the next wonder drug.
Young points out another potential avenue that companies can explore to advance their pharmaceuticals, “to exploit the crossover between orphan disorders.” By doing this, firms are able to work on two or more diseases at once, using their common elements to hopefully find potential cures for both. An example of this is Huntington’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. Both diseases share a common pathological hallmark that can potentially be treated with the same drug.
It’s frustrating to see pharmaceutical companies pursuing drugs that target the wealthy such as those for erectile dysfunction and longevity, while ignoring research into topics that affect millions who don’t have bottomless pockets. We can keep our fingers crossed that something with a significant profit potential is developed that can also benefit TBIs.
