Traumatic brain injuries are among the most serious potential consequences of a car, motorcycle or truck crash. While most fractures heal, brain injuries can be permanent and may impair the sufferer for life.
Traumatic brain injuries, known as TBIs can cause irreversible damage in the long-term because the inflammation associated with the injury can prevent healthy brain tissue from growing again.
However, Australian scientists believe they have found a natural ingredient that will halt the inflammation and alleviate some of the permanent effects of a brain injury.
The natural compound they hit on was seaweed. A report on FireceBiotech stated scientists at Australian National University and RMIT Australia University joined forces with Tasmania-based biotech company Marinova to develop a compound of a sugar molecule in seaweed.
Sea weed may be used to treat traumatic brain injuries
They were able to create a brain scaffold that closely resembled healthy brain tissue, according to the article.
The article stated the Australian scientists injected their mixture into a damaged brain, in the lab. It treated scarring and improved healing.
The seaweed-derived compound even seemed to have a positive effect on brain cells some distance from the original injury site.
Earlier this year, the scientists published their research in two papers, in the journals Nature Scientific Reports and ACS Biomaterials Science and Engineering.
The research has the potential to help the victims of traumatic brain injuries. Richard Williams, a senior lecturer at RMIT, stated in the release:
“This potentially allows an entirely natural, biomaterial approach to treat the damage caused by traumatic brain injury and stroke by allowing the brain to repair itself.”
The FierceBiotech article stated controlling inflammation after brain injury is a focus of researchers worldwide.
Recently, the University of Miami in Florida partnered with Tetra Discovery to test an experimental drug intended to improve the formation of memories in neurons post a TBI.
In 2016, scientists at Hebrew University in Israel revealed they are testing a molecule that targets the inflammatory protein thioredoxin (Trx1) in mild brain injury.
You can suffer a traumatic brain injury in a car wreck, an industrial accident, a slip and fall or on the sports if you receive a concussion. Brain injuries can cause long-term problems with cognition. Please call our Newnan TBI injury lawyers if you received a head or a brain injury at (404) 913-1529.