Modified blood thinner reduces the impact of traumatic brain injury in mice
Traumatic brain injury (TBI), which accounts for more than 2.5 million emergency room visits every year in the United States, often triggers inflammation and other harmful processes in the brain, causing further damage and cognitive deterioration long after the initial injury. Ordinary heparin has anti-inflammatory properties and has been shown to protect various organs after injury, but its blood -thinning effect makes it problematic for use in injured brains, where a bleed could be fatal. ODSH has only a small fraction of heparin's anticoagulant effect, and thus seemed a good bet as a safer alternative. Prior studies in animal models of heart attack, stroke, and pneumonia have found evidence that ODSH has a heparin-like anti-inflammatory effect, without the risk of hemorrhages. "When I first presented a heparin- TBI study, experts in treating these injuries laughed, and said 'that'll be the day, when we give heparin to TBI patients'," said study senior ...