Traumatic Brain Injuries Could be Treated With This Newer Technology
With the discovery of this new technology, it could be easy for delivering drugs directly to the injured areas of the brain.
Researchers from the Sanford-Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute have found a technology that can help develop newer therapeutics for traumatic brain injuries.
Damage to the brain is caused due to falls, car crashes and sports. Though several researchers are being carried out to develop potential drug candidates that can reduce the effect of traumatic brain injuries, still it remains to be less efficient as they lead to secondary injuries such as inflammation, increasing free radicals, leading to cell death.
‘A peptide sequence of four amino acids, cysteine, alanine, glutamine, and lysine (CAQK) can carry drug-sized molecules and nanoparticles to the injured areas of the brain. ’
Therefore, these researchers have come up with an alternative to inject therapeutics directly into the brain. A peptide sequence consisting of cysteine, alanine, glutamine, and lysine (CAQK) amino acids can carry drug-sized molecules and nanoparticles to the damaged areas of the brain.
"We have found a peptide sequence of four amino acids, cysteine, alanine, glutamine, and lysine (CAQK), that recognizes injured brain tissue. This peptide could be used to deliver treatments that limit the extent of damage," said Erkki Ruoslahti, senior author of the study.
The CAQK peptide binds to components of the meshwork surrounding brain cells called chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans, which increases in volume following a brain injury. Not only this, the researchers found that this peptide could also be used to create tools to identify brain injuries. It can attach to diagnostic materials that can be detected by medical imaging devices
They conclude that their study results open up brain injuries for nanomedicine-based therapeutic approaches. This technology has been licensed by a startup company, called AivoCode, which was recently awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation to help along the development of the new technology.
Source: Medindia