The Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at Boston University School of Medicine, the Sports Legacy Institute, and Aethlon Medical Inc. recently announced they would all be collaborating on a new biomarker discovery program. The collaborative will work together and share data to identify accurate and reliable biomarkers for diagnosing a heightened susceptibility to certain types of degenerative brain disorders.
The first study undertaken by Aethlon Medical Inc. and the collaborative will be to investigate donated brain tissue of athletes who suffered from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) when they died. The group will compare the brain of CTE patients with those of patients who died without showing any evidence of brain disease.
A PRNewswire release described CTE as, ‘A progressive neurodegenerative disease caused by brain trauma but with unclear environmental and genetic risk factors.’ The goal of the Aethlon collaboration is to ‘discover common biomarkers’ in order to enable doctors to identify athletes who are at risk of developing CTE before they participate in football and other activities with high head trauma risk.
The disease has earned national attention since 10 former pro football players were diagnosed with CTE recently. Five of the former NFL players died under the age of 50 from complications of the disease. Jim Joyce, the Chairman and CEO of Aethlon, said in the report, ‘This collaboration is near and dear to my heart as CTE was identified in Tom McHale, a friend and former high school and college teammate who died at the age of 45 last year.’
Joyce added that Aethlon Medical has, ‘the opportunity to showcase that the scientific advancements underlying our infectious disease and cancer treatment devices provide the basis for new products to discover the presence of biomarkers associated with various medical conditions.’ This means good news for many CTE patients and their families. With ever more research money being directed into collaborations such as Aethlon’s, CTE research will undoubtedly be advanced, and perhaps more effective treatments and preventative measures will arise out of the studies.
CSTE was excited about the collaborative effort and they championed Aethlon Medical for providing such an amazing opportunity to gather more data on CTE.
The CSTE and SCI have been in the news elsewhere recently as well. Representatives from both institutions were present to testify at a congressional judicial committee hearing on head injuries and their impacts on NFL players.
References:
PRNewswire Staff. (November 4, 2009). ‘Aethlon Medical Announces Collaboration to Identify Brain Trauma Biomarkers.’ Retrieved December 15, 2009 from the Bioresearch Online website: http://www.bioresearchonline.com/article.mvc/Aethlon-Medical-Announces-C…