Islamabad (Pakistan Point News / Online - 24th November, 2019) Radiation treatment saves lives, but it can also have a detrimental effect on the brain. New findings suggest that a well-known medication can reverse the damage.Share on PinterestNew research in mice finds that lithium can restore some of the cognitive functions that people lose as a result of radiation therapy.Lithium could become the "first pharmacological treatmentTrusted Source of cognitive late effects in childhood cancer survivors," according to a research team at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden.
"In the past few years, pediatric oncology has become better at saving lives but does so at a high cost," states Prof. Klas Blomgren, a consultant at the institute's Department of Women's and Children's Health."Virtually all children who have received radiation treatment for a braintumor develop more or less serious cognitive problems," he continues. "This can cause difficulties learning or socializing and even holding down a job later in life.
"Finding a way to limit or even reverse this harm was the purpose of a new study, which appears in Molecular PsychiatryTrusted Source.How does lithium work?According to the University of California, San Francisco, more than half of those with a brain tumor who undergo radiation therapy experiencecognitive decline.Moreover, a 2013 study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology found that after such therapy, young children showed a "significant" drop in IQ scores.
However, lithium a medication that doctors commonly use to treatbipolar disorder may be able to reverse this damage.Experts are unsure exactly how lithium works, but new findings suggest that it affects two important proteins.One, called Tppp, is necessary to help cells maintain their shape, while the other, GAD65, plays a role in regulating brain cell communication.In the study, researchers administered lithium to female mice 4 weeks after the animals had undergone radiation treatment. These mice were young, and they received lithium until they reached early adulthood.The team compared the formation of neurons in the brain at three separate times: immediately, 2 weeks, and 4 weeks after the administration of lithium.
