New technology could deliver drugs to brain injuries

Scientists have developed a new technology that could deliver drugs to treat traumatic brain injuries resulting from car crashes, falls or violence.

The discovery provides a means of homing drugs or nanoparticles to injured areas of the brain, researchers said.

"We have found a peptide sequence of four amino acids, cysteine, alanine, glutamine, and lysine (CAQK), that recognises injured brain tissue," said Erkki Ruoslahti from Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) in the US.

"This peptide could be used to deliver treatments that limit the extent of damage," said Ruoslahti.

Traumatic brain injuries usually result from car crashes, falls, and violence.

While the initial injury cannot be repaired, the damaging effects of breaking open brain cells and blood vessels that ensue over the following hours and days can be minimised, researchers said.

"Current interventions for acute brain injury are aimed at stabilising the patient by reducing intracranial pressure and maintaining blood flow, but there are no approved drugs to stop the cascade of events that cause secondary injury," said Aman Mann from SBP.

More than one hundred compounds are currently in preclinical tests to lessen brain damage following injury.

These candidate drugs block the events that cause secondary damage, including inflammation, high levels of free radicals, over-excitation of neurons, and signalling that leads to cell death, researchers said.

"Our goal was to find an alternative to directly injecting therapeutics into the brain, which is invasive and can add complications," said Ruoslahti.

"Using this peptide to deliver drugs means they could be administered intravenously, but still reach the site of injury in sufficient quantities to have an effect," he said.

The CAQK peptide binds to components of the meshwork surrounding brain cells called chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans. Amounts of these large, sugar-decorated proteins increase following brain injury, researchers said.

"Not only did we show that CAQK carries drug-sized molecules and nanoparticles to damaged areas in mouse models of acute brain injury, we also tested peptide binding to injured human brain samples and found the same selectivity," said Mann.

"This peptide could also be used to create tools to identify brain injuries, particularly mild ones, by attaching the peptide to materials that can be detected by medical imaging devices," added Ruoslahti.

"And, because the peptide can deliver nanoparticles that can be loaded with large molecules, it could enable enzyme or gene-silencing therapies," he said.

The findings were published in the journal Nature Communications.
 

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