Develops ‘brain glue’ to help people recover from traumatic brain injuries

Mysore/Mysuru: Kodagu-born scientist now based in the US Ballachanda Dr. Lohitash Karumbaiah and his team have developed a ‘brain glue’ to help people with traumatic brain injuries. The team found that their brain glue — an experimental hydrogel technology — helped prevent long-term damage and tissue loss in the injured brains of rats, while also speeding up the healing process.

The team of researchers from Regenerative Biosciences Centre, University of Georgia, has been working on developing new ways to repair acutely damaged brains. Severe traumatic brain injuries caused by life-threatening accidents send people into a comatose state and most of the cases are difficult to treat and even if treated, the recovery process is long with lifelong complications.

 The new study provides evidence that not only does the ‘brain glue’ protects against loss of brain tissue after a severe injury but it also might aid in functional neural repair. Traumatic accidents result in extensive tissue loss and long-term disability and currently there are no clinical treatments to prevent the resulting cognitive impairments or tissue loss.

Created by Karumbaiah in 2017, the ‘brain glue’ is actually made of complex sugars arranged in a particular way to look like sugars naturally found in the brain. Normally, these compounds bind to other proteins that together help protect and repair brain cells. 

By implanting the glue into people’s brains soon after injury, the team says it would boost natural healing ability, staving off otherwise untreatable brain damage and ensuring better outcomes for patients. 

“Animal subjects that were implanted with the brain glue actually showed repair of severely damaged tissue of the brain. The animals also elicited a quicker recovery time compared to subjects without these materials,” Dr. Lohitash Karumbaiah, who is an Associate Professor in the University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, said.

The animal subjects also improved cognitively. “As part of the experiment, the subjects were given a simple task to reach and grasp an object. Those treated with the glue performed better than the other. We found evidence of improved healing in the regions of the brain known to be involved in this task, further indicating that the glue was responsible for the better performance,” he added. 

Dr. Lohitash is the son of late Ballachanda Kambu Karumbaiah, an Army officer and Krishna, a retired State Bank Officer. He graduated from Bangalore University and did his M.S. at Griffith University in Australia. He later obtained his doctorate from University of Georgia. He is married to Sunaina, daughter of Mukkatira Sunny and Usha Medappa. The couple has two sons.