Stopping Extra Brain Damage From Immune Cells After Head Injury

In October 2014 Dr Richard Tobin (a surgeon at Texas A&M University Health Center) and colleagues published their research in Acta Neuropathologica Communications on how to stop secondary brain damage from head trauma. They theorized that head trauma can disrupt the blood-brain barrier, activate immune cells known as T-cells, and allow T-cells into the brain where they kill brain cells that would have survived the blow to the head. They used a chemical process called CAP to stop activation of T-cells in one group of mice given head trauma. Compared with the control group (that was given head trauma without any CAP) the mice that got the T-cell activation blocker had significantly fewer and smaller brain lesions. This holds out the possibility of CAP treatment for humans with brain injuries from head trauma one day.