Gelatin accelerates healing of the blood brain barrier in acute brain injury

How could this be used to ameliorate the damage that occurs to the blood brain barrier after your stroke?
https://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=180634&CultureCode=en

06 November 2017 Lund University

Researchers already know that gelatin-covered electrode implants cause less damage to brain tissue than electrodes with no gelatin coating. Researchers at the Neuronano Research Centre (NRC) at Lund University in Sweden have now shown that microglia, the brain’s cleansing cells, and the enzymes that the cells use in the cleaning process, change in the presence of gelatin.
“Knowledge about the beneficial effects of gelatin could be significant for brain surgery, but also in the development of brain implants”, say the researchers behind the study.
Our brains are surrounded by a blood brain barrier which protects the brain from harmful substances that could enter it via the bloodstream. When the barrier is penetrated, as in the case of biopsy or brain surgery for example, leaks can occur and cause serious inflammation.
Researchers at the NRC have previously shown that gelatin accelerates brain tissue healing and reduces damage to nerve cells in the case of electrode implants, but only now are they starting to understand how.
The researchers used sedated rats to investigate how the brain is repaired after being subjected to an injury. Gelatin-coated needles were used in one group, and needles without gelatin in the other.
“The use of gelatin-coated needles reduced or eliminated the leakage of molecules (which normally don’t get through) through the blood brain barrier within twenty-four hours. Without gelatin, the leakage continued for up to three days”, says Lucas Kumosa, one of the researchers behind the study, which was recently published in the research journal Acta Biomaterialia.
FEWER INFLAMMATORY CLEANING CELLS
When there is an injury to the brain, microglial cells – the brain’s cleaning cells – gather at the site. They clean up, but can also damage the nerve cell tissue through enzymes they release. In their study, the researchers observed a change in which cleaning cells moved towards the injury site.
“When we used gelatin, we saw only a small number of the inflammatory microglial cells. Instead, we observed cells of a different kind, that are anti-inflammatory, which we believe could be significant in accelerating healing”, explains Lucas Kumosa.
The hypothesis is that the potentially damaging enzymes are occupied with the gelatin instead.
“Gelatin is a protein and its decomposition releases amino-acids that we believe could promote the reconstruction of blood vessels and tissue”, explains Jens Schouenborg, professor of neurophysiology at Lund University.
SURGICAL SIGNIFICANCE
Research is currently underway on how electrodes implanted in the brain could be used in the treatment of various diseases, such as epilepsy or Parkinson’s. A major challenge has been to find ways of reducing damage to the area when using such implants.
“Although the research field of brain electrodes is promising, it has been a challenge to find solutions that don’t damage the brain tissue. Knowledge of how injuries heal faster with gelatin could therefore be significant for the development of surgical treatment as well,” says Jens Schouenborg.
The research is funded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the Swedish Research Council, Lund University and the Sven-Olof Jansons livsverk Foundation.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1742706117306372?via%3Dihub

• Full bibliographic informationActa Biomaterialia
  Gelatin promotes rapid restoration of the blood brain barrier after acute brain injury
  Lucas S.Kumosa
  ValdemarZetterberg
  JensSchouenborg
  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actbio.2017.10.020

Getting into your head: Gelatin nanoparticles could deliver drugs to the brain

Now if we just had a strategy to identify candidate drugs for this. Ask your neurologist whom the hell needs to be contacted to identify drugs for this purpose. If your neurologist doesn't know that call the hospital president and have that person relieved of duty for not knowing how to practice medicine. If WE don't start taking a hard line with our stroke medical staff they will never fix any of the problems in stroke. Heads need to start rolling. Ranting in full force today, the president of the WSO really needs to justify the incompetency of that organization.
http://news.illinois.edu/news/14/1223gelatin_hyungsoochoi_kyekyoonkim.html
Stroke victims could have more time to seek treatment that could reduce harmful effects on the brain, thanks to tiny blobs of gelatin that could deliver the medication to the brain noninvasively.

University of Illinois researchers and colleagues in South Korea, led by U. of I. electrical and computer engineering senior research scientist Hyungsoo Choi and professor Kyekyoon “Kevin” Kim, published details about the gelatin nanoparticles in the journal Drug Delivery and Translational Research.

The researchers found that gelatin nanoparticles could be laced with medications for delivery to the brain, and that they could extend the treatment window for when a drug could be effective. Gelatin is biocompatible, biodegradable, and classified as “Generally Recognized as Safe” by the Food and Drug Administration. Once administered, the gelatin nanoparticles target damaged brain tissue thanks to an abundance of gelatin-munching enzymes produced in injured regions.

The tiny gelatin particles have a huge benefit: They can be administered nasally, a noninvasive and direct route to the brain. This allows the drug to bypass the blood-brain barrier, a biological fence that prevents the vast majority of drugs from entering the brain through the bloodstream.
“Overcoming the difficulty of delivering therapeutic agents to specific regions of the brain presents a major challenge to treatment of most neurological disorders,” said Choi.  “However, if drug substances can be transferred along the olfactory nerve cells, they can bypass the blood-brain barrier and enter the brain directly.”

To test gelatin nanoparticles as a drug-delivery system, the researchers used the drug osteopontin (OPN), which in rats can help to reduce inflammation and prevent brain cell death if administered immediately after a stroke.

“It is crucial to treat ischemic strokes within three hours to improve the chances of recovery. However, a significant number of stroke victims don’t get to the hospital in time for the treatment,” Kim said.

By lacing gelatin nanoparticles with OPN, the researchers found that they could extend the treatment window in rats, so much so that treating a rat with nanoparticles six hours after a stroke showed the same efficacy rate as giving them OPN alone after one hour – 70 percent recovery of dead volume in the brain.

The researchers hope the gelatin nanoparticles, administered through the nasal cavity, can help deliver other drugs to more effectively treat a variety of brain injuries and neurological diseases.

“Gelatin nanoparticles are a delivery vehicle that could be used to deliver many therapeutics to the brain,” Choi said. “They will be most effective in delivering drugs that cannot cross the blood-brain barrier. In addition, they can be used for drugs of high toxicity or a short half-life.“

Both Choi and Kim are members of the Micro and Nano Technology Laboratory at the U. of I. Kim is also affiliated with the Neuroscience Program, the Institute for Genomic Biology, the Beckman Institute and the departments of bioengineering, of materials science and engineering, and of nuclear, plasma and radiological engineering at the U. of I.