Incretin mimetics as pharmacologic tools to elucidate and as a new drug strategy to treat traumatic brain injury.

Incretin mimetics as pharmacologic tools to elucidate and as a new drug strategy to treat traumatic brain injury. Alzheimers Dement. 2014 Feb;10(1S):S62-S75 Authors: Greig NH, Tweedie D, Rachmany L, Li Y, Rubovitch V, Schreiber S, Chiang YH, Hoffer BJ, Miller J, Lahiri DK, Sambamurti K, Becker RE, Pick CG Abstract Traumatic brain injury (TBI), either as an isolated injury or in conjunction with other injuries, is an increasingly common event. An estimated 1.7 million injuries occur within the USA each year and 10 million people are affected annually worldwide. Indeed, nearly one third (30.5%) of all injury-related deaths in the USA are associated with TBI, which will soon outpace many common diseases as the major cause of death and disability. Associated with a high morbidity and mortality and no specific therapeutic treatment, TBI has become a pressing public health and medical problem. The highest incidence of TBI occurs in young adults (15-24 years age) and in the elderly (≥75 years of age). Older individuals are particularly vulnerable to these types of injury, often associated with falls, and have shown increased mortality and worse functional outcome after lower initial injury severity. In addition, a new and growing form of TBI, blast injury, associated with the detonation of improvised explosive devices in the war theaters of Iraq and Afghanistan, are inflicting a wave of unique casualties of immediate impact to both military personn...
Source: The Journal of Alzheimers Association - Category: Psychiatry Tags: Alzheimers Dement Source Type: research