There is a void of point-of-care test that help diagnose acute traumatic brain injuries on the battlefields. But a crowdfund effort aims to change that. The public can now participate in the crowdfunding campaign and help in the development of the diagnostic kit currently being developed by a Finish-based firm called Medicortex using Invesdor’s crowdfunding portal: www.invesdor.com/medicortex. Medicortex is issuing shares with a goal of raising capital to match funding from the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation (Tekes).
TBI is an extremely serious and, unfortunately, increasingly common condition which, for combat veterans, is in most cases the direct result of the proximity to the concussive force of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), mortars, rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and other explosive weaponry. The symptoms of TBI which occur because of the head trauma include sleep disturbance, problems with concentration, ringing in the ears, nausea, and seizures. When left untreated, these symptoms can develop into more severe neurodegenerative conditions, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Due to the concussive blasts of IEDs in Afghanistan and Iraq, an alarming number of veterans – some 200,000, according to the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center – currently suffer from TBI-related problems. Unfortunately, many if not most were misdiagnosed because, as noted by journalist and military affairs analyst Sharon Weinberger in her 2011 article “Bombs’ Hidden Impact: The Brain War”, until recently, the symptoms of TBI were often misclassified as symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), the traditional diagnosis for soldiers with neurological and/or emotional problems. To better understand how this misclassification finally ended, Weinberger interviewed Dr. Walter Koroshetz, deputy director of the US National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Dr. Koroshetz explained that it was the growing awareness of TBI in athletes who had sustained repeated blows to the head during their careers that triggered the current acceptance in the medical world that soldiers were and are suffering from the same neurodegenerative effects of TBI as the athletes.
Why is TBI so insidious and so damaging?
The answer lies in the cascade of physiological events that follow brain trauma. In the hours, days, and weeks following a TBI, the increased permeability of the neuronal membrane allows for an excessive influx of metal ions and circulating free radicals which cause a series of protein degradation cascades and oxidation, leading to widespread molecular damage and neuronal cell death. In short, the damaged area after the initial trauma expands.
“The medical and pharmaceutical community has yet to develop a treatment that can prevent long-term effects of TBI,” comments Dr. Adrian Harel, the founder of Medicortex. “At Medicortex, we are working on developing a diagnostic kit and treatments that not only alleviate the immediate symptoms of TBI, but also prevent the underlying condition from causing long-term, devastating consequences. Such diagnostic kit and treatment would offer profound help to the men and women who have suffered brain trauma while serving overseas.”
About Medicortex:
Medicortex Finland Oy (http://www.medicortex.fi) is a pharmaceutical company dedicated to improving the diagnostics and treatment of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). The current focus is on the development of biomarker diagnostics to evaluate the extent and severity of traumatic brain injury and concussion. Once the development of the diagnostic kit is complete, the next goal is to expand the program to the development of an innovative drug to halt the progression of brain injury.
Please look at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1eeuOhXXJ8
Contact:
Adrian Harel, Ph.D., MBA
Itäinen Pitkäkatu 4 B,
FI-20520 Turku, Finland
Tel: +358 (0) 400 488 817
e-mail: adrian.harel@medicortex.fi
Website: http://www.medicortex.fi
