The University of Montana, USA, with $1 million funding from the US army, is conducting exploratory research into whether methamphetamines, commonly referred to as ‘meths’, can treat traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), one of the wounds afflicting soldiers who have been exposed to bomb blasts. These types of brain injuries have been brought to public attention in recent years due to the impact of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.
While the drug has been associated with addiction and abuse, it is thought the answer lies in the dosage that is administered, which would be at a much lower level than that on the street where it causes harm.
“The difference between the poison and the cure is the dose,” said David Poulsen, who is leading the research project at the University of Montana. Poulsen hopes that the drug will act as a neuroprotectant, which will then help the military develop a drug that can halt brain damage in soldiers soon after exposure to a roadside bomb blast by being administered through an intravenous line.
Poulsen described the impact of a TBI from a bomb blast by likening it to a lightning bolt that starts a fire in the brain. The blast itself is damaging, but it also causes the brain to release harmful neurochemicals, which cause a cascade of damage. In contract, the use of methamphetamine triggers the release of other brain chemicals, called catecholamines, which tell a recently damaged brain to halt this self-destructive cascade.
The evidence so far is based on an earlier study in Poulsen’s lab in 2011, also funded by the US army. This found that low doses of methamphetamine given to rodents within 12 hours after a traumatic brain injury or stroke significantly reduce brain damage and impairment, based on tests involving brain tissue samples from rats. If administered at high doses, then the drug worsened the strokes, but at low doses, it acted as a neuroprotectant.
Now the additional $1 million army grant will fund a deeper analysis of the drug with tests conducted to see whether the drug works in female and older rats. This is in preparation for an eventual test on humans, as Poulson is currently waiting to hear if he receives a grant of $6 million grant from the Joint Warfighter Medical Research Program, which would support a safety study in humans that is required by the Food and Drug Administration.
Read the source article here:
http://www.militarytimes.com/article/20130928/NEWS/309280007/Meth-studied-possible-brain-injury-treatment
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