New approach to traumatic brain injuries

Though they link to the journals, they don't actually link to the articles directly. At any rate, what they describe is very interesting: that blast injury leads to disruption of cell-cell adhesion.[1] If so, perhaps the disruption of integrins is the key lesion. The second paper shows that there could also be a biological basis for the post-blast vasospasm, too.[2]

We know that cell-cell adhesion molecules are part of larger complexes that are hugely important in cellular processes from promoting inflammation to cancer suppression (or, in its disregulation, metastasis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epithelial-mesenchymal_transiti... ).

If the hypothesis--that blast injury has an important biological component--is true, then we're dealing with a biological basis for neurological disease after blast, instead of just a purely mechanical basis for disease. Unlike purely mechanical disruption, the biological part of the injury is potentially amenable to therapeutic intervention; and that's just what they've trialed with their ROCK inhibitor. I believe that's from paper #1.

This same inhibitor appears to ameliorate the blast-related sequelae on the cerebral vascular system as well, which I believe is from paper #2.

This is my interpretation based on the Gazette article, but I haven't yet read the papers themselves.

1. Paper #1 http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi/10.1371/journal.po...

2. Paper #2 http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2011/07/12/1105860108.abst...

This is wonderful research and the people that did it deserve accolades. What they proved, however, is the destruction that occurs with brain tissue in extreme trauma occurs on so many different levels it is virtually impossible to intervene adequately in the limited time available. The lesson to me is that we humans need to be a bit more humble and not assume we can fix all our stupid mistakes.

One day I hope a pill is invented for after a head shock (I suppose in a severe head shock the person won't be able to swallow) so an injection, sublingual or patch -- it stops the devastating chemical chain reaction: the equivalent of icing a sprain: ice for the brain.

Maybe a sound or frequency generator might work too.