Brain particles following head injury may link to dementia
A recent study on the brains of mice have lead researchers to believe that micro particles that are secreted in the spinal cord following a brain injury might be linked to dementia later in life. According to a recent article on the New Scientist website, results of the study could help explain how inflammation spreads, […]
A recent study on the brains of mice have lead researchers to believe that micro particles that are secreted in the spinal cord following a brain injury might be linked to dementia later in life.
According to a recent article on the New Scientist website, results of the study could help explain how inflammation spreads, which ultimately increases the risk of developing dementia.
“Head injuries are increasingly being linked to cognitive problems and degenerative brain disease in later life. Mysterious particles a micrometre in diameter have previously been found in the spinal fluid of people with traumatic brain injury, but their function has remained unknown,” the article reads.
But now, a researcher at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore along with his colleagues, have discovered that microglia, which are activated immune cells, actually secrete tiny particles after a brain injury occurs. According to Faden, the lead researcher, those particles seem to spread inflammation farther than just the location of the injury.
Another interesting find is that when the researchers injected the particles into mice without brain injuries, the mice’ brains swelled.
“ The particles have receptors that latch onto cells, and are packed with chemicals such as interleukins, which trigger inflammation, and fragments of RNA capable of switching whole suites of genes on or off,” the article reads. “The effect of these particles in driving inflammation even in animals without traumatic brain injury is convincing,” says Marie-Ève Tremblay of Laval University in Québec, Canada, who last year discovered unusual microglia that could be linked with dementia,”
Tremblay believes the microglia may also secrete other particles.
Stephen Thom, who co-authored the study with Faden, has already developed an agent they believe might work against the microparticles. The agent is called PEG-TB and its function is to basically neutralize the microparticles and cause them to fall apart before they have the chance to spread.
