Researchers discover cause of brain swelling
Researchers at the University of B.C. have found the root cause of brain swelling created by strokes and head injuries, a discovery that could guide future drug development.
A description of the key chemical pathway that leads to brain swelling — or edema — was published Thursday in the scientific journal Cell by a team from the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health.
“It’s a spectacular discovery. I think it has a much more immediate impact because there’s a target that could be used to develop drugs to block the brain swelling,” said Brian MacVicar, one of the study’s senior authors and co-director of centre, a collaboration between UBC and the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute.
Finding a drug that acts on the key protein they identified during research on mice could be as close as five years away, he predicted. Any drug used to treat the brain has to go through lengthy and rigorous testing, MacVicar said, but the demand for such a medication is enormous because there is no effective treatment now, other than cutting a hole in the skull to relieve pressure.
Swelling of the brain is potentially fatal as it gradually develops in the hours and days following trauma to the head. Cells engorged with fluid die and the base of the brain, which controls breathing, may be crushed,
It affects not only victims of accidents, heart attacks and blood clots in the brain, but also people with infections, meningitis and malaria, noted co-author Terrance Snutch, director of translational neuroscience at the centre.
While it was known that a buildup of sodium chloride — salt — in the brain’s neurons caused them to absorb water and expand, the UBC team found blocking the action of chloride on the cell wall halts the process.
The research was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Brain Canada, Genome British Columbia, the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research and the Koerner Foundation.