Chapter 14: Injury and Illness
In this chapter…
- Brain Tumors
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Neurological AIDS
- Neurological Trauma
- Pain
- Seizures and Epilepsy
- Stroke
Brain Tumors
- Primary brain tumors: tumors that begin in brain tissue but don’t spread to other tissues
- These tumors can spread through the brain but be benign
- Malignant brain tumors: harmful tumors that can originate from brain or spread to the brain
- They have a greater likelihood to grow faster and invade
- These tumors are coupled with the identity of specific cells in tumor
- Some of these criteria are used to classify a tumor’s grade
- grade: severity of a tumor
- No matter what grade the tumor is it’s harmful because it can interfere with normal brain activity
- Symptoms of brain tumors vary with the location and size
- Seizures and headaches are the most common symptoms
- Gliomas: brain and spinal cord tumors originating in and comprised of cancerous glial cells
- These cancerous glia release glutamate at toxic concentrations
- Glutamate kills off neurons near the tumor, making room for expansion
- The glutamate is also responsible for seizures
- The expanding tumor can increase the pressure in the skull
- This causes headaches, vomiting, visual disturbances, and impaired mental functioning
- Tumors are diagnosed with MRI & CT scans
- Early imaging is beneficial because tumors can be identified at a lower grade
- This improves the course of disease & outcome
- Treatment options for primary brain tumors are limited
- Surgery is generally the first step
- This can only be done if the tumor is accessible and won’t damage vital structures
- Radiation can be used to stop a tumor’s growth or cause it to shrink
- Chemotherapy destroys tumor cells that remain after surgery and radiation
- Unfortunately it is not very effective for gliomas
- The blood-brain barrier makes it hard for drugs to reach the brain
- Trials for targeted therapies are aimed at the biologic characteristics of tumors
- Possibilities include:
- Vaccines made from the tumor with things that boost the immune system or kill tumor cells
- Monoclonal antibodies that hone in on receptors on the surface of tumor cells
- Monoclonal antibodies: antibodies produced by clones of a single cell
- Anti-angiogenic therapy: restricting the tumor’s blood supply
- Immunotherapy: using the body’s own immune system against the tumor
- Gene therapy: delivering bioengineered genes to tumor cells to kill them
- There are several approaches for targeted delivery of antibodies, toxins, or growth-inhibiting molecules that attach to tumor cells and interfere with growth
- Chlorotoxin: a scorpion-derived toxin that can interfere with the spread of tumor
- Shows promise in studies
- Extended individuals’ life expectancy significantly
- Stem cells might have a role in the origin of brain tumors
- Cells in tumors that may be most harmful may be able to be tracked
- Epidemiologists are looking into tumor genetics and patients’ lifestyles, environments, occupations, medical histories
- Epidemiologists: scientists who study disease in human populations
Multiple Sclerosis
- Multiple Sclerosis (MS): Autoimmune disease where the immune system attacks the myelin sheath covering the axons of neurons in the Central Nervous System
- Diagnosed between 20-40
- Affects essentially every aspect of a patient’s life
- The lossoss of myelin results in damage to nerve fibers
- Damage may be so severe that the nerve fiber deteriorates
- Comparable to loss of insulating material around electrical or cutting of wire
- This interferes with the transmission of signals
- After the loss of myelin, the axon sheath is repaired and replaced by scars (scleroses) of hardened patches of tissue
- Usually associated with further degeneration of nerve fibers
- Lesions/plaques: areas of disease activity appearing in multiple places in the CNS
- Both genetic and environmental factors probably play a role in determining who contracts MS
- Siblings of MS patients have a 2-3% risk while identical twin has a risk of approximately 30%
- MS is 5x more prevalent in temperate zones than in the tropics
- Caucasians are more susceptible than other races
- Studies show that people who got MS before 15 were affected by environmental factors
- But now, studies suggest that there is no exact age cutoff
- The spinal cord, cerebellum, and the optic nerve are commonly affected areas
- Numbness, clumsiness, blurred vision often occur because of this
- MS can affect many other brain areas, including white matter and grey matter
- white matter: areas comprised of myelinated nerve fibers
- grey matter: areas rich in neuron cell bodies and dendrites
- Symptoms of MS may include
- slurred speech
- weakness
- loss of coordination
- pain
- uncontrollable tremors
- loss of bladder control
- memory loss
- depression
- fatigue
- other cognitive problems
- Cognitive symptoms of MS depend on the site of damage
- Relapsing/remitting MS- there are flares of the disease and then periods where it improves
- Progressive MS: ongoing nerve fiber degeneration causes the symptoms become permanent and gradually worsen
- This usually leads to progressive accumulation of disability that affects mobility, strength, balance, and coordination
- At this point, the MS can’t be cured
- Many medications control relapsing forms of MS by limiting the immune attack & reducing associated inflammation
- Steroids may be effective in shortening attacks
- They help to speed recovery from MS-related acute attacks
- There are medications and therapies for symptoms but none for the nerve degeneration that causes the progression of MS
Neurological AIDS
- AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome): advanced HIV infection
- Life-prolonging drugs make HIV a chronic illness instead of a death sentence in the US
- In developing countries, only 36% of those who need therapy are getting such treatments
- Women now represent half of all HIV cases worldwide
- The main target of HIV is the immune system, but the nervous system can be affected as well
- HAND: HIV associated neurocognitive disorder
- Affects 50+ % of HIV patients
- HAND tends to affect people not receiving CART (combination antiretroviral treatment)
- CART (combination antiretroviral treatment): a cocktail of 3+ drugs that are meant to work against HIV
- Side effects of HAND include
- mild difficulty with concentration
- memory
- complex decision-making
- coordination to progressive
- fatal dementia
- HAND may be related to secreted viral products or cytokines
- cytokines: cell-coded immune signaling molecules
- Some viral proteins are neurotoxic
- They may play role in ongoing damage that occurs during infection
- Viral Tat- a protein released by HIV-infected cells that is suspected of neurotoxicity
- HIV is the prime mover in HAND
- Antiretroviral treatment may prevent or reverse the condition in many patients
- Patients can develop increasing difficulty with concentration and memory as well as experience general slowing of mental processes in late stages of HAND
- At the same time, the patient may develop leg weakness and a loss of balance
- Brains of these patients have undergone some shrinkage
- Neurological effects of AIDS in patients
- loss of neurons
- abnormalities in white matter
- injury to cellular structures involving in interneuron signaling
- may be related to inflammation and abnormalities with blood vessels
- Highly active CART is effective in reducing the incidence of severe HAND
- Such treatment can reverse cognitive abnormalities attributed to brain HIV infection
- Peripheral neuropathy: nerve injury in the extremities that results in the disease or dysfunction of one or more peripheral nerves
- Causes discomfort ranging from tingling to burning to severe pain
- Virus triggers sensory neuropathy by releasing neurotoxins
- This reaction has been unmasked by antiretroviral drugs that produce mitochondrial toxins
- Makes neuropathies more frequent and serious
- Rare opportunistic infections and malignancies are seen more frequently in HIV patients due to immunodeficiency
- CART greatly reduced the incidence of most of these kinds of infections
Neurological Trauma
- Traumatic brain & spinal cord injuries can lead to significant disabilities and death
- Methods to hold off severe neurological damage caused by trauma exist
- Accomplished by working to prevent secondary pathogenesis
- secondary pathogenesis: damage that occurs after the initial injury
- Support regeneration & repair
- Refine & optimize rehabilitation techniques
Traumatic Brain Injury
- The main concern is brain pressure
- It is monitored to prevent bleeding or swelling
- Treatments for increased intracranial pressure include:
- the removal of cerebrospinal fluid
- moderate hyperventilation to decrease blood volume
- drugs to reduce cellular metabolism
- removal of water from injured tissue
- Lesions can consist of surface bleeding or in-brain bleeding
- This causes the formation of bruises called contusions
- Contusions can increase brain pressure and contribute to the development of post-traumatic epilepsy
- Blood leaking from vessels and touching the brain tissue causes localized pressure and reduced cerebral blood flow
- Blood itself can be also toxic to brain cells
- Decompressive craniectomy: removal of part of the skull to allow the brain space to swell
- This is used as a last resort
- Administering rogesterone cut the number of deaths in severely injured patients by 50%
- Functional recovery improved by 30 days in moderately injured individuals
- Treatments of injury-induced reduction of cerebral blood flow are drugs that increase arterial blood pressure
- These treatments result in an increase in blood flow with the reduction of intracranial pressure
- Allows more blood to reach vital areas
Spinal Cord Injury
- Methylprednisolone: the only FDA-approved treatment for spinal cord injury
- Studies showed some recovery when those with spinal cord injuries got a high IV dose of methylprednisolone within 8 hours of injury
- After a spinal cord injury, animals can regain the ability to bear their weight and walk at various speeds on a treadmill belt
- The level of recovery depends a lot on whether the tasks are practiced after injury
- New nerve cells can be born in the adult brain
- But these are not sufficient to help the injured brain regenerate
Pain
Treating Pain
- Local anesthesia: loss of sensation in a limited area
- These temporarily interrupt the action of all nerve fibers by interfering with sodium channels
- Examples of local anesthesia include novocaine and lidocaine
- Topical lidocaine is effective where a light touch to the skin can produce severe pain in neuropathy
- Analgesia: loss of pain sensation
- There are 5 main types of analgesics (painkillers)
- Nonopioids: aspirin and NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs)
- Examples include ibuprofen and naproxen
- NSAIDs are useful for treating mild to moderate pain, arthritis, and post-operative pain
- NSAIDs work by inhibiting the cyclooxygenase enzymes that make prostaglandin
- Moderate pain can be treated by combining a mild opioid with aspirin or an NSAID
- Opioids- analgesics that work by binding to opioid receptors
- Examples include morphine and codeine
- They are the most potent painkillers and are used for severe pain
- Adverse side effects include respiratory depression and constipation
- Opioids have a high potential for abuse
- Antiepileptic agents: used for treating epilepsy but are also used to treat neuropathic pain and fibromyalgia
- Examples include gabapentin and topiramate
- Antiepileptic and antidepressants are useful for treating neuropathic pain coming from injury to the nervous system
- Includes neuropathy caused by diabetic neuropathy, damage from high blood sugar, nerve pain or numbness from viruses, phantom limb pain, and post-stroke pain
- Antidepressants: used for treating depression, chronic, and neuropathic pain
- Examples include amitriptyline, duloxetine
- Best results come with using antidepressants that regulate serotonin and norepinephrine
- SSRIs don’t help relieve neuropathic pain
- Acetaminophen: has analgesic properties but does not reduce inflammation
- This is the active ingredient in tylenol
The Body’s Pain Control System
- Opioid receptors are concentrated in the spinal cord
- This finding led to use of injections of opioids into cerebrospinal fluid without causing paralysis, numbness, or other side effects
- Injecting morphine into the spinal cord produced large pain control in animal tests
- Nociceptors: peripheral nerve fibers that initially respond to an injury stimulus
- Many ion channels and receptors are predominantly or exclusively expressed by nociceptors
- Adverse side effects of drugs arise from the widespread location of molecules targeted by analgesics
- Constipation results from morphine’s action on opioid receptors in the gut
- New painkillers that only target nociceptors will have fewer side effects
- One specialized receptor channel is activated by capsaicin
- Capsaicin is the pungent chemical responsible for spice in hot peppers
- Another receptor channel is activated by mustard oil
- Blocking the activity of many receptors like these has proven effective
- This suggests that the creation of drugs targeting these molecules in humans has great value for the treatment of acute and persistent pain
- The topical application of capsaicin has recently been approved for some neuropathic pain conditions
- Capsaicin kills the sensing portion of pain fibers
- But these sensory areas will regenerate, so the process needs to be repeated
- Pain is in the brain, not in nociceptors that respond to injury
- Pain involves emotional factors
- Placebos and hypnosis can significantly reduce pain
- This shows the importance of psychological factors
Seizures and Epilepsy
- Seizures: occur due to sudden, disorderly changes in interconnected brain neurons
- They can alter one or morebrain functions
- Seizures are associated with epilepsy
- Epilepsy: a chronic neurological disorder characterized by the occurrence of unprovoked seizures
- Epilepsy can start at any age
- Idiopathic epilepsies: epilepsies arising from uncertain or unknown cause
- Idiopathic epilepsies are probably due to the inheritance of 1+ mutant genes
- These genes are often mutant ion channel genes
- Symptomatic epilepsies: epilepsies with a known or presumed cause
- Symptomatic epilepsies can result from a wide variety of brain diseases or injuries including:
- Birth trauma
- Head injury
- Neurodegenerative disease
- Brain infection
- Brain tumor
- Stroke
- There are two main types of epilepsies
- Generalized epilepsy: characterized by the loss of consciousness and range of behavioral changes including convulsions and sudden changes in muscle tone
- Generalized epilepsy occurs when there is simultaneous excessive electrical activity over a wide area of the brain
- This often involves thalamus and cerebral cortex
- Generalized epilepsy is easier to treat
- Up to 80% of patients become seizure-free with antiepileptic drugs
- Partial epilepsy: the individual maintains consciousness or has altered awareness and behavioral changes
- Partial epilepsy can produce
- localized visual, auditory, skin sensory disturbances
- repetitive uncontrolled movements
- confused, automatic behaviors
- Arises from excessive electrical activity in one area of the brain
- This is restricted to the cortical or hippocampal area
- Partial epilepsies are harder to treat
- Sometimes a combination of drugs is necessary
- The principal targets of antiepileptic drugs are ion channels or neurotransmitter receptors
- Surgery is an option for patients with specific partial seizures who don’t respond to antiepileptic drugs
- Electrical recordings of brain activity from patients allow for the precise localization of the brain area where seizures originate from
- Improvement or complete remission of seizures occurs for at least several years after the surgery
- Electrical stimulation therapy: an implanted device delivers small bursts of electrical energy to the brain via the vagus nerve on the side of the neck
- Vagal nerve stimulation has been shown to reduce the frequency of partial seizures in many patients
Stroke
- Stroke: occurs when a blood vessel bringing oxygen and nutrients bursts or is clogged by a blood clot or some other particle
- This causes the brain to be deprived of blood
- Neurons downstream of the blockage can die within minutes
- The effects of stroke are location-dependent
- It can cause permanent disorders like paralysis on one side of the body or the loss of speech
- Until recently, if someone had a stroke, there were few treatment options outside of physical or speech therapy
- Patients would live out their remaining months or years with a severe neurological impairment
- tPA (tissue plasminogen activator): opens blocked vessels rapidly to restore circulation before oxygen loss causes permanent damage
- Strokes can be prevented by controlling the risk factors
- These risk factors include diet, exercise, and the use of certain drugs
- Treatments for stroke include
- Surgery to place arterial stents
- keeps arteries open
- clears clogs in neck arteries
- Targeting treatment of heart disease to prevent the cutoff of blood supply
- Anticoagulant drugs to reduce the likelihood of clots forming
- Targeting mechanisms inside the neuron to slow down mass biochemically-induced neuron death
- The use of the weakened limb by temporarily restricting the use of the other limb may help functional recovery following a stroke affecting the movement of one limb
- Neural stem cells can help recovery even if administered several days after the injury
- Administering growth factors may further enhance the benefits of stem cell transplantation