How far will $1.7 million go when applied towards research on traumatic brain injuries (TBI)? Far enough to help progress ground breaking research in the areas of neuropsychology, rehabilitation psychology and physical medicine and rehabilitation at the Southeastern Michigan Traumatic Brain Injury System (SEMTBIS).

The DMC Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan and the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Wayne State University was awarded a 5-year grant totaling $1.7 million from the U.S. Department of Education’s National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR).

SEMTBIS will be able to apply this funding towards cutting-edge research focused on the clinical care of patients with TBI. Specifically, they are concentrating on “Full Access to Community Life”, a project that looks at priority areas such as employment of people with disabilities and the community integration of TBI survivors and their family members.

For more information on SEMTBIS, visit their Website.

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.

ClinicalTrials.gov is this week’s spotlight.

This Website is dedicated to providing information on a variety of traumatic brain injury (TBI) trials. If you are interested in participating in cutting edge research regarding various aspects of TBI, this is a good place to start looking for information.

Clinical trials are essential to TBI research as they determine which drugs and treatments are approved for human use. While tests on lab animals are what initially decides whether or not a drug is effective, they need human test subjects to figure out if they will really work or if they are ineffective.

Researchers often face the problem of not being able to find enough trial participants. This holds up the process of publishing a potentially beneficial drug. Some trials offer compensation, and all offer high levels of medical care while you are participating in the study

The enzyme chondroitinase seems to have a beneficial effect on nerve damage. Plasticity, which allows the brain to make new connections after old ones are damaged, is crucial for recovery after a brain or spine injury, and scar tissue can interfere with this process.

A team of researchers from the Centre for Brain Repair in Cambridge studied the use of this enzyme that is used by bacteria in order to invade cells on rats with spinal cord injuries. Chondriotinase goes after the molecules (chondroitin sulphate proteoglycans) that create the scar tissue that blocks the formation of new nerve connections.

Used alone, chondriotinase had little benefit to the lab rats, but when combined with rehabilitation, there was a significant improvement. “The discovery opens up the possibility that rehabilitation for neurological conditions can be made much faster and more effective by giving treatment such as chondroitinase to make the nervous system plastic,” said lead researchers Professor James Fawcett and Dr. Guillermo Garcia-Alias.

According to Dr. Mark Bacon with Spinal Research, the next step will be figuring out how to administer this “bacterial protein” in a safe manner to humans with spinal cord injuries.

Click here for the BBC article, and here for image origin.

The study of the use of Polyethylene glycol (PEG) for traumatic brain injuries is continuing to discover new information. Researchers from Purdue University found that if treatment was delayed more than six hours after a brain injury, the use of PEG no longer had any positive effects.

The authors of this study found say that this doesn’t have to be an issue as PEG can be easily administered from an IV at the scene of the accident. The study has moved on from rats and guinea pigs to dogs, so hopefully there will soon be an application approved for human use. When it comes to preventing long-term brain injury, every little bit counts!

An article from Medinfo came to our attention as it includes some information on traumatic brain injury (TBI) research along with summaries of a few of the most recent studies. Some of the authors mentioned are among the top researchers in this area.

For a worthwhile teaser on controversial drug treatments, healing TBI, cognitive development methods and testing for TBI, this article may pique your curiosity.