Could Simple Protein Reduce Head Injuries?

Potential good news for football players comes from researchers at Harvard Medical School who have found a link between head trauma and the development of the degenerative brain condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The finding leads to the hope that players who might develop CTE can be identified and helped before cognitive issues arise.

Funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Alzheimer’s Association and the NFL Players Association, the study identified an abnormal protein that appears in the brains of mice shortly after they experience head trauma. That protein proved to be a precursor to neurofibrillary tangles which are clumps of tau protein found in the brains of deceased patients with CTE.

Not all football players get CTE. Researchers believe that the new protein might be a start in sorting out which players may be more susceptible to the ailment. At present these neurofibrillary tangles can only be found after an athlete dies.

David Geier, M.D., who wrote about the discovery for the Post & Courier, reports that lead researcher Kun Ping Lu, M.D., Ph.D. and his team have created antibodies to the protein. They gave those antibodies to half of their experimental traumatized mice and gave none to the other half.

They found that the mice who suffered the brain trauma but were not given antibodies showed progressive risk-taking behaviors, similar to that of athletes who have advanced-stage CTE. The mice that received the antibodies did not develop that abnormal behavior.

According Geier, Lu and his team plan to make a form of the antibody for humans. Football players, who test positive for that protein after a head injury, could take that medication and possibly prevent brain damage.

Geier warned about getting hopes too high too soon. He wrote, “Maybe a medication based on tau antibodies will prove to be a breakthrough for future football players, and maybe it won’t. It has at least given football a glimpse of hope.”