memory loss

The mysterious condition once known as “water on the brain” became just a bit less murky this week thanks to a global research group led in part by a Case Western Reserve researcher. Professor Anthony Wynshaw-Boris, MD, PhD, is the co-principal investigator on a study that illustrates how the domino effect of one genetic error can contribute to excessive cerebrospinal fluid surrounding the brains of mice — a disorder known as hydrocephalus. Scientists are still at the most nascent stages of understanding different causes and kinds of hydrocephalus. In some instances, the root sources are genetic; in others, the fluid accumulation is attributed to complications of premature birth. This project illuminates one way in which genetic influences contribute to the condition.

Evidence that hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) should repair chronically impaired brain functions and significantly improve the quality of life of mild TBI patients. The new findings challenge the often-dismissive stand of the US Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the medical community at large, and offer new hope where there was none.

A biology student at Stanford and researchers at the National Institutes of Health have devised a method for observing the immediate effects of a mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) in real time in mice. The work has revealed how individual cells respond to the injury and has helped the researchers suggest a possible therapeutic approach for limiting brain damage in humans.

While the symptoms of a concussion—dizziness, vomiting, memory loss—can be felt immediately, the long-term impacts of repeated brain trauma have been harder to study. Research points to chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, as one of the major outcomes. CTE is caused by a buildup of tau, a protein that strangles brain cells and degenerates brain tissue, which is caused by repetitive brain trauma like the hits football players endure.

This methodology may apply to humans if we can identify the same biochemical processes in humans. Our results suggest a new strategy for treatments of cognitive impairment. Mathematical models might help design therapies that optimize the combination of training protocols with traditional drug treatments, Byrne said.

While many intellectual disabilities are caused directly by a genetic mutation in the so-called “protein coding” part of our genes, the researchers found that in their case the answer laid outside the gene and in the regulation of proteins.