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On Tuesday, the Boston-based researchers who have pioneered the identification of CTE in contact-sport athletes said they may have found a way to recognize the degenerative brain disease in people while they’re still alive.

Researchers from Boston University’s School of Medicine have identified an inflammatory protein circulating in spinal fluid that may reflect the presence of CTE in patients’ brains. That telltale protein, called CLL11, appears likely to make its way into the bloodstream, where it might readily reveal the presence of a degenerative process akin to premature aging in the brain.

“This is just the beginning,” said Dr. Ann McKee, co-author of a study published Tuesday in the journal PLOS One. “We need to find it at the earliest stages.”

McKee directs Boston University Medical School’s Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Center, which recently revealed it found evidence of the degenerative disorder in 110 of 111 professional football players who donated their brains to the program upon their death.

In life, all of those donors had suffered behavioral symptoms ranging from depression and impulsiveness to substance abuse and aggression. The loved ones of most of these players generally reported cognitive and behavioral changes that worsened over time.

An important aim of McKee’s group is to devise a blood test that could alert a young athlete to avoid further collisions, or warn a retired athlete to take steps that could slow a gathering degenerative process, McKee said. But researchers will need to surmount many more hurdles before that’s possible, she added.

Among other objectives, researchers will need to demonstrate that the protein they’ve zeroed in on is a reliable sign of CTE, and that it can distinguish CTE from other degenerative brain diseases. And they must understand more precisely how levels of CLL11 that can be measured in the bloodstream reflect those present in the brain.

More: http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-cte-biomarker-football-20170926-story.html

#Medicine #CTE #Football