Blue food dye may save spinal cords after injury

[steven johnson]

Now, in addition to corticosteroids, there is another hopeful therapy for acute spinal cord injury.


A COMMON and safe blue food dye might provide the best treatment available so far for spinal cord injuries.

Tests in rats showed the dye, called brilliant blue G, a close relative of the common food dye Blue No 1, crossed into the spinal fluid and helped block inflammation, the University of Rochester Medical Center claimed."We have no effective treatment now for patients who have an acute spinal cord injury," Dr Steven Goldman said."Our hope is that this work will lead to a practical, safe agent that can be given to patients shortly after injury, for the purpose of decreasing the secondary damage that we have to otherwise expect."When nerve cells in the brain or spine are damaged, they often release a spurt of chemicals that causes nearby cells to die.No one is sure why and stopping this process is key to preventing the damage that continues to build after a stroke or spinal cord injury.One of the chemicals is ATP.The team looked for something that would interfere with this and found the blue dye, which they called BBG, would do this via the P2X7R receptor or doorway."We found that IV administration of the P2X7R inhibitor BBG significantly reduced the severity of spinal cord damage without any evident toxicity," they said."Remarkably, BBG is a derivative of the widely used food additive FD&C Blue No 1.Currently, US consumers recond a daily intake of more than 16mg per person of the dye.The only known toxicity is in patients with blood infections known as sepsis.Tests in humans are likely still years away, the Rochester team said.   - Reuters





Blue food dye may save spinal cords

[izquierdista]

1. That's Smurftastic!

But what about the side effects?

[Jane Austin]

2. LOL!!!!

Thanks for the laff out loud!