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Stroke Drug May Provide Effective TBI Treatment
A study published in PLoS ONE says the only drug currently approved to treat the disabling effects of strokes may also be a potential treatment for similar damage in more moderate forms of traumatic brain injury, if the drug is used in the form of a nasal spray.
Researchers Ye Xiong, Ph.D, Zhongu Lui, Ph.D., and Michael Chopp, Ph.D., Scientific Director of the Henry Ford Neuroscience Institute, say the drug showed promise in animal studies hich purport to show the brain’s ability to self-repair following trauma can be improved when treated tissue plasminogen activator (tPA).
“Using this novel procedure in our earlier stroke studies, we found significant improvement in neurological function,” said Chopp. “So we essentially repeated the experiment on lab rats with subacute traumatic brain injury, and with similar remarkable results.
“As in stroke treated intra-nasally with tPA, our subjects showed greatly improved functional outcome and rewiring of the cortical spinal tract.”
