New clinical trial testing for brain trauma
A new clinical trial will test former professional athletes in an effort to understand brain trauma better. The trial is being performed through a subsidiary of San Diego’s Aethlon Medical. According to an article on the San Diego Tribune website, the trial by Exosome Sciences of Houston is expected to begin in the second quarter, […]
A new clinical trial will test former professional athletes in an effort to understand brain trauma better. The trial is being performed through a subsidiary of San Diego’s Aethlon Medical.
According to an article on the San Diego Tribune website, the trial by Exosome Sciences of Houston is expected to begin in the second quarter, said James Joyce, Aethlon’s president and CEO.
Some of the athletes who will be recruited to participate in the trial include boxers and football players. Basically, any professional athlete who plays in a full-contact sport. Full contact sports are known to potentially cause repeated brain trauma in athletes, which leaves them susceptible to chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a progressive degenerative disease found in people who have had a severe blow or repeated blows to the head. The disease was previously called dementia pugilistica (DP), or “punch-drunk,” as it was initially found in those with a history of boxing.
CTE has been most commonly found in professional athletes participating in American football, rugby, ice hockey, boxing, professional wrestling, stunt performing, bull riding, rodeo, Association football and other contact sports.
Up to 200 former professional football players will be recruited for the trial.
“CTE is known to affect boxers and has also been found in football players and military veterans,” the article reads. “All these groups are at risk for repeated head injuries. At present, the disease can only be diagnosed after death by examination of the brain.”
Junior Seau, a former Chargers linebacker who killed himself in 2012 reportedly had clusters of an abnormal protein called tau on his brain. Tau has also been linked to Alzheimer’s disease.
The test will look for signs of tau in blood plasma in the athletes. Higher levels of tau have been associated with a greater level of cognitive decline.
