Food colors can reduce spinal cord damage

The popular additive to create M & Ms candy colors and Gatorade drinking water promises to bring promise to prevent serious damage in the second stage of spinal cord injury.

In an article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , the researchers reported that the compound Brilliant Blue G (BBG) could prevent the increase of molecular transformation leading to the destruction of the second phase. hours after the first trauma, the stage saw further expansion of the medullary and even permanent damage to the patient's mobility.

The study was built on the groundbreaking experimental results first published by scientists at Rochester University Medical Center five years ago. In August 2004, in the cover story of Nature Medicine, scientists described details of ATP, an essential energy source that helps cells in the human body to survive and function, possibly fast. spilling into areas around the spinal cord injury immediately after this injury begins to appear, killing non-lesion cells and being completely healthy.

This surprising discovery marks an important milestone in how the second stage lesions appear in the patient's body. It also brings new perspectives on how to prevent second-stage damage, with the use of oxidative ATP, a compound that is thought to prevent the negative effects of ATP on healthy cells. The spinal cord-damaged mice in the experiment recovered much of the limb after being injected with an oxidized ATP dose, they could even move, move back and forth with different levels of agility.

Now, scientists have succeeded in finding a compound that has the same effect that they can easily control after being injected into the patient's body. Previously, the team had to directly inject the oxidized ATP compound into the damaged spinal cord to obtain the same results.

'We have achieved great results when directly injecting oxidized ATP into the spinal cord, but this method is not satisfactory for patients,' said Maiken Nedergaard, head of the research team. neurosurgeon, director of the University of Rochester's Center for Neuroscience and Medical Center. 'First of all, no one wants to be stabbed directly into a spinal cord and underwent a severe injury. Meanwhile, the oxidized ATP, the compound that we used initially, cannot be directly injected. into blood vessels due to its side effects. So we understand that it is necessary to find another way to quickly inject a substance that prevents ATP from killing healthy motor neurons. '

Nedergaard cautions that although this work seems very promising for the treatment of spinal cord injury, it still needs a few more years before it can be mass applied in patients.Moreover, any positive treatment is only effective for those who have just undergone spinal cord injury, they are completely useless for patients who have experienced 24-hour trauma or more . Similar to clot-busting agent that can only help a patient who has had a stroke or a heart attack a few hours ago, the new compound discovered in this study only works with The patient has just undergone spinal cord injury and is treated immediately after several hours.
New prospects

While ATP is often considered to be completely beneficial to the human body (the main source of energy supplied to all cells), Nedergaard is the first researcher to discover its reverse side to the spinal cord. Immediately after a marrow injury occurs, ATP spills over to the lesion at a rate hundreds of times faster than normal.It is at this tremendous speed that neurons are overstimulated and die from metabolic stress.

A common additive that gives color to M & Ms and Gatorade drinks promises to bring about a promise to prevent serious damage in the second stage of spinal cord injury.(Photo: copyrighted by University of Rochester Medical Center)

Such neurons in the spinal cord are susceptible to ATP damage because of a molecule called the "death receptor." Scientists know that this receptor - P2X7 - also occurs when the spinal cord becomes excess of neurons. P2X7 allows ATP to cling and send signals to nerve cells, causing them to die and worsen the spinal cord injury, leading to loss of mobility.

So the team is determined to find a compound that prevents the effects of ATP on the condition that it must be injected directly into the patient's vein. Fortunately, Nedergaard discovered BBG, a P2X7R resistance, corresponding to FD&C No. 1 green dye both in terms of structure and function. Certified as a safe additive by the 1982 Food & Drug Administration, more than a million kilograms of this dye are used annually in the United States; Every day, an American citizen eats an average of 16 mg of FD&C green dye 1.

'Because BBG is very similar to widely used food blue dyes, we believe it also has an effect in preventing stage two lesions such as oxidative ATP, and without any effect. Which side and become a potential therapeutic potential for spinal cord injury, ' Nedergaard said.

And the team was not disappointed. A direct intravenous injection of BBG significantly reduced second-stage lesions in spinal cord-injured rats, allowing them to move again, though not quite as quickly.In contrast, mice that were not treated with BBG permanently lost mobility. The only side effect was that the mice injected BBG temporarily had blue spots on some areas of the skin.

Nedergaard's long-term collaborator on this project and many other projects are Steven Goldman, chief of the University of Rochester Neurology. He added: 'We did not provide any effective therapy for patients with chronic spinal cord injury. We only hope to provide a safe and effective agent for patients who have just undergone injury, with the aim of reducing the injuries in the second stage. '

Nedergaard and Goldman believe that further testing is needed to check the safety of BBG and related substances before starting treatment on human body. However, researchers believe through the experiment, this will be a new treatment for acute spinal cord injuries in the next few years.

Other authors from Rochester University Medical Center include: Weiguo Peng, Maria L. Cotrina, Xiaoning Han, Hongmei Yu, Lane Bekar, Livnat Blum, Takahiro Takano, and Guo-Feng Tia.

The study received funding from the New York State Spinal Cord Injury Program, Sheldon Adelson Medical Research Foundation, and the US National Institutes of Health.