![]() ![]() “This doesn’t mean the cortex isn’t affected, but simply that it might have the necessary tools to recover over time. “The thalamus seems particularly vulnerable, even after a mild traumatic brain injury,” says Stephanie Holden, PhD, first author of the study and former graduate student in Paz’s lab at Gladstone. In particular, they found that a molecule called C1q was present at abnormally high levels in the thalamus for months after the initial injury, and these high levels were associated with inflammation, dysfunctional brain circuits, and the death of neurons. Jeanne Paz (right) and her team discovered that the molecule C1q in the thalamus could contribute to long-term effects of brain injury.ĭuring a trauma to the head, the region of the brain called the cerebral cortex is often the primary site of injury, because it sits directly beneath the skull.īut at later time points, the researchers discovered that another region-the thalamus-was even more disrupted than the cortex. “But it was important to capture all the different stages of sleep and wakefulness to get the whole picture.” “We collected so much data, from the time of injury and over the next several months, that it actually crashed our computers,” says Paz. The researchers monitored the mice continually and wirelessly, meaning the mice could go about their normal activities without being disrupted. To do so, Paz and her team recorded the activity of different cells and circuits in the brain of mice after brain injury. ![]() “The goal of our study was to understand how the brain changes after traumatic brain injuries and how those changes can lead to chronic problems, such as the development of epilepsy, sleep disruption, and difficulty with sensory processing.” “These injuries are frequent and can happen to anyone,” says Paz, who is also an associate professor of neurology at UC San Francisco (UCSF) and a member of the Kavli Institute for Fundamental Neuroscience. Traumatic brain injury affects 69 million people around the world annually, and is the leading cause of death in children and a major source of disability in adults. Often, soldiers returning from war also suffer head injuries, which commonly lead to the development of epilepsy. Traumatic brain injuries, which range from a mild concussion to a severe injury, can be the result of a fall, sports injury, gunshot injury, blow to the head, explosion, or domestic violence. In collaboration with scientists at Annexon Biosciences, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, they also showed that an antibody treatment could prevent the development of these negative outcomes. They identified a specific molecule in a part of the brain called the thalamus that plays a key role in secondary effects of brain injury, such as sleep disruption, epileptic activity, and inflammation. In a new study published in the journal Science, Paz and her team helped close that gap. ![]() “So, understanding how the traumatic brain injury affects the brain, especially in the long term, is a really important gap in research that could help develop new and better treatment options.” “No therapies currently exist to prevent the disabilities that can develop after a brain trauma,” says Jeanne Paz, PhD, associate investigator at Gladstone Institutes. These long-term effects can last a few days or the rest of a person’s life. This is a common situation after a traumatic brain injury-many people experience bad side effects months or years later. You also become very sensitive to noise and bright lights, and find it hard to carry out your daily activities, or perform well at your job. You recovered, but years later you begin having difficulty sleeping. ![]() You’ve been in a car accident and sustained a head injury. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |