Research could find way to diagnose disease in living

It is a humbling but very motivating fact that a person currently has to die before doctors can make a diagnosis of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the degenerative brain disease that afflicts many NFL football players and other athletes who have sustained repeated blows to the head.

After all, if it were possible to diagnose CTE in the living, those athletes and the physicians who care for them could probably do something useful with that knowledge.

Last month, the Boston-based researchers who have pioneered the identification of CTE in contact-sport athletes said they may have found a way to recognize the degenerative brain disease in people while they’re still alive.

Researchers from Boston University’s School of Medicine have identified an inf lammatory protein circulating in spinal fluid that may reflect the presence of CTE in patients’ brains. That telltale protein, called CLL11, appears likely to make its way into the bloodstream, where it might readily reveal the presence of a degenerative process akin to premature aging in the brain.

“This is just the beginning,” said Dr. Ann McKee, co-author of a study published in the journal PLOS One. “We need to find it at the earliest stages.”

McKee directs Boston University Medical School’s Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Center, which recently revealed it found evidence of the degenerative disorder in 110 of 111 NFL football players who donated their brains to the program upon their death.

In life, all of those donors had suffered behavioral symptoms ranging from depression and impulsiveness to substance abuse and aggression. The loved ones of most of these players generally reported cognitive and behavioral changes that worsened over time.

An important aim of McKee’s group is to devise a blood test that could alert a young athlete to avoid further collisions, or warn a retired athlete to take steps that could slow a gathering degenerative process, McKee said. But researchers will need to surmount many more hurdles before that’s possible, she added.

Among other objectives, researchers will need to demonstrate that the protein they’ve zeroed in on is a reliable sign of CTE, and that it can distinguish CTE from other degenerative brain diseases. And they must understand more precisely how levels of CLL11 that can be measured in the bloodstream reflect those present in the brain.

Finding a biological marker for CTE may also be a key step in identifying ways to prevent, slow or even reverse the mental slide that continues long after a player has retired and the blows to the brain have ceased, McKee said.

Detroit Lions safety and former New Mexico Lobo Glover Quin said he would take part if these developments led to reliable CTE testing — but only if there also was a cure for the disease.

“I’m pretty sure if there’s a solution then all the guys would be like, ‘Yeah, let me take the test,’ ” Quin said. “Because if I do have it, I can get help before it gets bad. I think it should be, if there’s a solution, it should be a mandatory thing like, here, take the test. No question.

“I don’t know if it’s medication or counseling, I don’t know. I don’t know what it is, but if there’s a solution then you’ve got to make everybody take the test. If there’s no solution, why would I take the test? To live my life walking around like, ‘Man, you know I’ve got CTE, right? I might just get mad and slap you right now.’ ”