Brain and Spinal Cord Damage
Actor Christopher Reeve’s paralyzing spinal cord injuries and his death years later exemplify the devastating nature of brain and spinal cord injuries that afflict 1.5 million Americans annually. 481,000 Kentuckians currently live with these conditions. More recently, National Football League, Buffalo Bills tight-end Kevin Everett’s catastrophic spinal cord injury in fall 2007, his research-based treatment, and his amazing recovery exemplify the exciting advances in neuroscience research, diagnosis and treatment of spinal cord and brain injury and disease.
UK’s Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Center (SCoBIRC), directed by Edward D. Hall in the College of Medicine, was established in 1999 to study Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBIs) that result in paralysis or other loss of neurologic function. The Center, in partnership with the University of Louisville and the Medical College of Virginia, works to build upon advances in finding treatments that are more effective and ultimately to achieve functional repair of the injured spinal cord and brain.
They have found that a cascade of biochemical events following the initial injury significantly worsens the patient’s initial condition. They are also studying the beneficial effects of cyclosporine A, a drug that appears to reduce secondary damage to the brain and spinal cord of TBI patients. A definitive biochemical marker is needed to serve as an index of the injury’s severity. Dr. Hall and the spinal cord and Brain Injury Research Center are attempting to discover and validate these TBI biomarkers.
Actions and Outcomes to Date
Dr. Hall and his fellow researchers are completing analysis of the beneficial effects of cyclosporine A. Planning for Phase III Clinical Trials of cyclosporine A is ongoing. Implementation of phase III clinical trials is expected to include as many as 30 U.S. Centers. UK’s brain and spinal cord initiative has also developed and validated methods for measuring oxidative brain damage biomarkers and scales for measuring the degree of oxidative and nerve cell damage. In February 2008, the team will submit a grant to cover further development of their biomarker methods and use. UK has joined a consortium of preclinical traumatic brain injury investigators around the county for activities to further validate the efficacy of these new compounds during the first few hours and days after TBI.