Traumatic brain injury interferes with immune system cells' recycling process in brain cells, finds study (Rapamycin helps)

Medical Xpress / University of Maryland School of Medicine / Autophagy ^ | April 4, 2023 | Vanessa McMains / Nivedita Hegdekar et al

[ConservativeMind]

Researchers found that after traumatic brain injury, the brain's immune system cells' internal recycling function slowed dramatically, allowing waste products to build up and interfere with recovery from injury.

The researchers also found that treating mice that had traumatic brain injury with a drug to promote cellular recycling improved the mice's ability to recover from injury.

The body's cells regularly recycle their own worn-out or damaged parts that accrue through normal wear and tear, infection, or injury in a process known as autophagy. In a previous study, Dr. Lipinski's group showed that traumatic brain injury reduced the ability of neurons—the cells that send electrical impulses—to recycle their own damaged parts, which then led to these neurons dying off.

After a traumatic brain injury, white blood cells—normally excluded by the blood-brain barrier—can also get into the brain and work alongside the microglia cells to eat and remove damaged cells. For this new study, Dr. Lipinski's team focused on the immune cells—microglia and white blood cells—in the brain after traumatic brain injury and found that like the neurons, their recycling function was also suppressed.

Findings suggested that the recycling function of the immune cells in the brain is essential for recovery after brain trauma. Conversely, boosting it may possibly lessen the impact of the trauma.

To test that, the researchers used a drug, rapamycin (normally used as a cancer drug or to prevent organ rejection), to promote cellular recycling in the brains of mice who had traumatic brain injury. The researchers found that with the treatment, the mice had lower levels of inflammation in the brain.

"The drug we used in our study blocks a set of proteins that are important for regenerating the body's cells, so it cannot be used for extended time periods," said Dr. Lipinski.

[ConservativeMind]

Clearing out weakened cells with rapamycin, an available senolytic, helped get brain cells back to normal.

[ConservativeMind]

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[Shortstop7]

Wow. What a great development.