News Medical Life Sciences 4/13/18
A receptor on our immune cells that can detect both the heat of a red chili pepper and the extreme physical heat of a pizza oven may help protect the brain following a traumatic brain injury, scientists say.
A third of patients hospitalized with a TBI die from damage that is actually secondary to the collision on a football field or highway that caused their initial head trauma, says Dr. Kumar Vaibhav, research scientist in the Department of Neurosurgery at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University.
He is looking to find whether activating the receptor – transient receptor potential vanilloid-1, or TRPV1 – on the immune cells that rush to the ailing brain, can reduce the lingering inflammation associated with problems like poor cognition and depression in the aftermath of a TBI.
Link: Full Article – Receptor that detects heat of red chili pepper may help protect brain after TBI