TBI Research Cardiff University

Just before Christmas, at the Hadyn Ellis Building in Cardiff, we met with Malik Zaben who is making excellent progress with his research into TBI. He is hoping to apply for a large grant to promote his exciting research. RJSMT are supporting his application. This is a statement from Malik:

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is a growing health and socioeconomic problem that affects people on a global scale. The damage incurred can be severely debilitating, primarily affecting the younger population. It can result in requirement of life long care and significant loss of generative years.

TBI occurs in two stages: the first stage is the primary insult, which disrupts structural architecture and triggers an influx of inflammatory processes. The sequelae of inflammation on brain tissue includes reduction in oxygen levels, swelling and

tissue death, which encompasses the secondary injury and consequently causes the cognitive and behavioural deficits that we see in TBI patients.

A better understanding of this inflammatory process is important to guide the identification of novel therapeutic strategies to reduce the detrimental effects of secondary injury. Recent evidence has demonstrated an important association between TBI and increased levels of a protein called High-mobility group box-1 (HMGB1). HMGB1 is a ‘danger signal’ that binds to another protein called RAGE to trigger the inflammatory process leading to significant neuronal loss after injury. Dr Zaben a lecturer in neurosurgery is leading a research team investigating whether inhibition of HMGB1-RAGE interaction can reduce brain inflammation and improve neuronal survival in TBI in an attempt to find a potential target to improve functional recovery in patients.

Dr Zaben described Rhiannon Jade-Smith Memorial Award as an instrumental grant that improves our chances of obtaining larger scale funding to discover new drug treatments for TBI.