In American football, players repeatedly suffer major blows to the head. As a result of these repeat hits, many athletes suffer from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease that manifests as depression, dementia, aggression and suicidal behavior years to decades after the trauma.
But the researchers behind a new study say that a single traumatic brain injury can also have lasting consequences on brain health. A team of scientists from Europe found that levels of a protein called tau, which marks brain injury in CTE, also shows up in patients that had a single traumatic brain injury. The researchers say the discovery may lead to earlier therapeutic interventions for patients.
“It is important to be able to detect tau in the brain during a person’s lifetime, as this in the future might lead to timely treatment to slow down dementia in this vulnerable patient population,” Imperial College London ...
