Experimental Compound Repairs Traumatic Brain Injury in Mice

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) often leads to subsequent neurodegeneration and increases risk for Alzheimer disease, Parkinson disease, vascular dementia, and chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Damage to the blood–brain barrier (BBB) is seen in each of these conditions.

Investigators caused sham TBI in some young adult mice, and real TBI in others. About 10 months later, at the midpoint of their lives, the mice with real TBI were treated either with a compound known to protect the BBB (an aminopropyl carbazole, called P7C3-A20) or with a sham treatment. As expected, mice with sham TBI suffered no neurodegeneration, and mice with real TBI plus sham treatment did experience neurodegeneration. But in mice with real TBI that were treated with P7C3-…