BBG may halt spinal cord injuries
Research that has been done on BBG, or Brilliant Blue G shows that limb function can be returned – at least in laboratory animals. This research has been going on with BBG but this is the first confirmed experimentation that shows damage can be repaired by the use of this food additive. The scientists were trying to find a compound that would at least slow down the cell damage after a spinal cord injury. idea was to stop the ATP from killing healthy motor neuron cells that were near the damaged area of the spine. However, the initial com,pound used, oxidized ATP could not be injected in the blood stream because there are severe side effects. But an intravenous injection of BBG reduced damage to the spinal cord in laboratory animals enough for many to walk again. The only major side effect was that animals injected had a blue tinge to their skin for a few weeks. (Source: Drugs.com)
While additional studies need to be performed on animals to prove the safety of BBG, this is another arrow in the quiver of tools doctors may soon have to use on spinal cord injury patients. Another interesting aspect of this chemical is that it works even after significant time has past in the injury. Some procedures work but only after the first few minutes to hours of the initial injury. This includes dramatically cooling to the damaged area so that swelling does not have time to crush and destroy neurons around the point of impact. It is hoped that BBG works well in monkeys as it does in rats in the next set of studies. Monkeys are much closer to us in chemistry than rats and as such gives researchers a better idea of how drugs interact in the human body.
Drugs based on chemicals like BBG are a major breakthrough because they are not tied to DNA like stem cells that can not only grow out of control but also be rejected by the host. Because this would be a drug like aspirin, doctors would not have to tissue type patients before use of BBG. This shows that research across the whole spectrum of ideas is needed to get a real cure from spinal cord damage. Only putting our eggs in one basket (like stem cells) makes us myopic to new ideas and chemicals that can do amazing things without the problems and issues of stem cells.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Loading ...
User Comments
No comments yet.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.