A Maritime-based researcher is trying to better understand neurological conditions, such as epilepsy.
Earlier this year, renowned scientist Dr. Alon Friedman left his home in Israel to conduct his research at Dalhousie University in Halifax.
Friedman’s research focuses on the blood brain barrier, a complex filter that surrounds the brains of all mammals, and what happens when this important filter becomes diseased.
“It permits, on the one hand, that oxygen and glucose and important building blocks of the brain will get in, but it avoids toxins, proteins and other materials you don't want in the brain, and it allows the brain to have its own very special environment,” says Friedman.
Just like any other body part, the blood brain barrier can become sick.
“Like any blood vessel in our body, it can become diseased by trauma, so concussions, brain concussions in sport, for example, can cause this damage to blood vessels, but it can be caused by smoking, by an increase in lipids in our body, diabetics.”
Dr. Friedman was recently named the William Dennis Chair in pediatric epilepsy research, which is one of the conditions affected by the blood brain barrier. Dementia, Parkinson's disease, cognitive problems and psychiatric mobility are also affected.
Cassidy Megan, 15, was diagnosed with epilepsy when she was in Grade 1.
She's the founder of Purple Day, a day set aside annually to raise awareness of the condition.
Megan says she was excited to meet a researcher studying her condition.
“Now people can learn more about it and with the research that he's doing, he can, like, find cures for it and better medicines,” says Megan.
Much of Friedman's research has focused on football players. Due to their higher instances of concussions, they are at risk for diseases of these specific blood vessels.
“So what we've developed is a method for imaging using magnetic resonance imaging, MRI, a specific way to diagnose leaky vessels or pathological-diseased vessels, the pathological blood brain barrier, and once we can detect it, hopefully we can treat it and prevent the delayed damage,” says Friedman.
He will be working closely with colleagues at the Maritime Brain Tissue Bank.
“To look at brains of Alzheimer disease patients, and other patients, and to find out who of those patients suffer,” says Friedman. “So we know that some Alzheimer disease patients suffer from vascular pathology, but we don't really know exactly the details, to what extent, how many patients and what was their history.”
He says breaking down those barriers could allow us to better understand complex brain conditions.
