20 February 2012
An innovative drug could offer hope to those who have sought a brain scan in order to cure the effects of traumatic brain injury (TBI).
Researchers at Detroit's Wayne State University School of Medicine have determined that the drug clazosentan has already been successful in shielding rats from the harmful damage that TBI can cause.
In order to determine the results that the drug can have on a person's mind, the team gave a group of rats the treatment through an intravenous line at several different points after first developing the condition.
Monitoring the rats after this treatment revealed that clazosentan cut the effects of TBI on the animal's blood flow to the hippocampus by 25 per cent just four hours after the rat first showed signs of the injury.
Michael Kaufman, an author of the research and student at the Wayne State University School of Medicine, pointed out: "There are currently no primary treatments for TBI, so this research provides hope that effective treatments can be developed."
TBI affects around 1.7 million individuals each year, with 52,000 people dying as a result of the condition, according to data provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Posted by Jeanette Royston
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