The use of probucol, a cholesterol-lowering drug, in mice with traumatic brain injury has been shown to promote neuroregeneration and improve functional deficits, suggesting it could be used to treat humans with brain injuries, a National Health Research Institutes (NHRI) research team said yesterday.
NHRI vice president Chen Wei-jen (陳為堅) said that traumatic brain injuries are usually caused by a severe blow to the head, such as in motor vehicle crashes, falls or being struck by an object.
About 650,000 cases of traumatic brain injury are reported each year in Taiwan, with about 100,000 classified as moderate to severe, Chen said.
Photo: CNA
Survivors of moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury often have damaged neurological and cognitive functions, as well as other prolonged or permanent disabilities, and are at a higher risk of developing dementia, he said.
However, no drug has been approved to treat that alone.
A research team led by NHRI Institute of Cellular and System Medicine researcher Yet Shaw-fang (林秀芳) found that the daily administration of probucol in mice with traumatic brain injury promoted neuroregeneration, reduced their brain lesion volume, improved motor functions and attenuated memory dysfunctions.
The condition of about 26 percent of people with moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury who undergo rehabilitation for five years might improve, 22 percent might remain the same, 30 percent might worsen and 22 percent might die, NHRI Institute of Cellular and System Medicine postdoctoral fellow Chen Chien-mei (陳倩玫) said, citing clinical data.
In adults, neurogenesis (the growth of new brain cells) and neuroplasticity (the brain’s capacity to change and adapt) appear to be considerably more limited, so dead or damaged neurons in the brain due to traumatic brain injury usually only have a minimal or partial and slow functional recovery, she said.
As probucol is a compound with anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, the team administered it to mice with traumatic brain injury in experiments, she said, adding that they surprisingly discovered that probucol activated the brain-derived neurotrophic factor, promoted post-traumatic neurogenesis and neuroplasticity, stimulated neurite outgrowth and reduced brain lesion volume by 33 percent.
Probucol also enhanced recovery from injury-induced body asymmetry, improved post-injury motor function and ameliorated memory dysfunction in the mice, she said, adding that it might also be used to reduce the risk of dementia in people with traumatic brain injury.
The cholesterol-lowering drug has established safety profiles, meaning that it could be repositioned to treat people with traumatic brain injury, Yet said.
As the team has identified the neuroregenerative properties of probucol in mice, as well as its properties in improving post-injury neurological and cognitive disabilities, the findings could be applied to clinical trials to establish the proper dosage and course of treatment for humans, Yet said.
The team’s findings were published in the British Journal of Pharmacology in June.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS