Paramagnetic Nanoparticle Formulations for Targeted Traumatic Brain Injury Treatment

Student’s name: Beeta Zamani Home Institution: University of California, San Diego NNCI Site: SDNI @ UC San Diego REU Principal Investigator: Dr. Pedro Cabrales Arevalo – Jacobs School of Engineering, Shu Chien-Gene Lay Department of Bioengineering, UC San Diego REU Mentor: Dr. Cynthia Muller - Jacobs School of Engineering, Shu Chien-Gene Lay Department of Bioengineering, UC San Diego Abstract: Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) are damages to the brain tissue that arise from external damage to the skull, and are a leading cause of death and disability in the United States. The severity of TBIs is largely correlated to incident injury severity, which results in localized damage that disrupts normal brain function. Primary injuries are observed in patients immediately after TBI incidence, and require immediate diagnosis and care. However, secondary injury can also arise weeks, months, or even years after, making TBI extremely dangerous. The urgent nature of this injury requires therapeutics that are fast-acting, localized, and have minimal side effects for best patient outcomes and prevention of future complications. This research carefully considers the cascading physiological effects of TBI to design a ferromagnetic nanoparticle for expedited treatment of TBIs. Targeted and localized delivery of nitric oxide is achieved with these ferromagnetic nanoparticles to restore blood flow to the injury site, which provides an innovative and non-invasive solution to treatment and reduction of TBI damage. This treatment was explored in rodents to carefully observe nanoparticle treatment efficacy, symptoms and side-effects after treatment, and performance in central nervous system function after administration post-TBI.