Traumatic Brain Injury Therapeutics Progress

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) currently has no cure. There is research being done on pharmaceutical drugs that would help stop the neurodegenerative processes caused by TBI. Of these, the two drugs I am focusing on are Riluzole which directly stops neurodegeneration, and Etoricoxib, which stops inflammation. To see their effect on the brain and spinal cord, I am targeting the GFAP and UCH-L1 biomarkers. I am using the ELISA kit procedure and previously stored blood samples from Long Evan rats used for Dr. Eureï¾’s dissertation, where he was studying a similar topic to see which effect these drugs have. After reorganizing the samples, I worked to correlate blood samples to previous results and create new ones. The conclusion was that Riluzole, in combination with Etoricoxib, shows a correlation with UCH-L1 levels in the brain. We also found that increasing concentrations of Riluzole in the brain showed a decrease in UCH-L1 levels in the brain within 24 hours. Several pharmaceutical drugs are being tested to see their effect on the brain and spinal cord and how they can help stop neurodegeneration. Though I could only replicate and form some new conclusions on these drugs and their effect on neurodegeneration, continuation in this research could help produce a cure for TBI, which affects nearly 1.5 million people a year.