By Maureen Salamon HealthDay Reporter WEDNESDAY, April 23, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- New research suggests that people with more education recover significantly better from serious head injuries. Scientists from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore found that adults with moderate to severe traumatic brain injuries who had earned at least an undergraduate degree were more than seven times as likely to completely recover from their injury than those who didn't finish high school. The research focused on how "cognitive reserve" -- the brain's ability to maintain function despite damage -- affects recovery from traumatic brain injury. The results echo previous research in Alzheimer's dementia suggesting that more years of education, believed to lead to more effective brain use and greater cognitive reserve, slows progression of symptoms. "I'm not sure we can quite say you should stay in school based on this study alone. But if one looks at the dementia literature, maintaining the health of your brain by being actively involved in your life is important," said study author Eric Schneider, an epidemiologist and assistant professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "And in the unlikely event of injury to your brain, it may help," he added. … Continue reading →

Between 10 and 20 percent of all cases of epilepsy result from severe head injury, but a new drug promises to prevent post-traumatic seizures and may forestall further brain damage caused by seizures in those who already have epilepsy. A team of researchers from UC Berkeley, Ben-Gurion University in Israel and Charit-University Medicine in Germany reports in the current issue of the journal Annals of Neurology that a commonly used hypertension drug prevents a majority of cases of post-traumatic epilepsy in a rodent model of the disease. If independent experiments now underway in rats confirm this finding, human clinical trials could start within a few years. This is the first-ever approach in which epilepsy development is stopped, as opposed to common drugs that try to prevent seizures once epilepsy develops, said coauthor Daniela Kaufer, UC Berkeley associate professor of integrative biology and a member of the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute. Those drugs have a very limited success and many side effects, so we are excited about the new approach. The team, led by Kaufer; neurosurgeon Alon Friedman, associate professor of physiology and neurobiology at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev; and Uwe Heinemann of the Charite, provides the first explanation … Continue reading →

By Estel Grace Masangkay Lpath, an antibody-platform company focusing on bioactive lipid-targeted therapeutics, and scientists from the Center for Military Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) announced the start of a collaborative research agreement study for brain injury drug Lpathomab. Lpathomab is an antibody to lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) intended for the treatment of brain injury resulting from blast overpressure. The drug works as a sponge which soaks up LPA, a molecule known to damage neurons and promote inflammatory responses in the central nervous system. Recent research published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation shows that Lpathomab is able to reverse most of the damage caused by trauma to the nervous system in a controlled cortical-impact model of TBI in mice models. Lpath is at present conducting studies for Lpathomab intended as a basis for IND applications. The company said it plans to enter Phase I clinical trials in early 2015 for neuropathic pain and neurotrauma. Incidence of blast traumatic brain injury (TBI) has increased in recent wars due to the use of improvised explosive devices and hand-held grenades. TBI is a leading cause of disability among service members. Prevalence of concussions in soldiers returning from recent wars … Continue reading →

Contact Information Available for logged-in reporters only Newswise Philadelphia, Pa. (April 25, 2014) The development of graphenea highly advanced metamaterial with many unique and varied propertiesmay lead to exciting new applications in the diagnosis and treatment of neurological diseases, according to a report in the May issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. Tobias A. Mattei, MD, of Invision Health/Brain & Spine Center Buffalo, New York and Azeem A. Rehman, BS, of The University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria present a "primer" on the development of graphene-based metamaterials that may lead to new advances in several areas of neurosurgery. Mattei and Rehman write, "As a surgical specialty that heavily relies on technological innovations, it is expected that neurosurgery will significantly benefit from several graphene-based technological developments in the next decades." Graphene Has 'Extremely Remarkable' Properties An artificially engineered "metamaterial"with properties not typically found in naturegraphene is composed of a single layer of carbon atoms in a "honeycomb lattice" pattern. The developers of graphene were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010; massive resources are being invested in its … Continue reading →