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Eat your way to a better brain for your baby - Florida parents pay for hydrocephalus research
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Eat your way to a better brain for your baby - Florida
parents pay for hydrocephalus research
Category: Pediatrics News
Article Date: 28 Nov 2005
A team of British scientists at Manchester and Lancaster Universities
has turned established thinking on its head in a bid to understand
the serious and often deadly condition, hydrocephalus, commonly
known as 'water on the brain'.
A simple dietary supplement taken during pregnancy could prevent
the brain defect resulting from hydrocephalus, revolutionary research
suggests.
Now, parents of children suffering from the condition in the United
States have stumped up the money to pay for the next stage of their
investigations.
The money will fund a lab at the University of Central Florida
headed by the British researchers, who hope their work will lead
to a significant reduction in the risk of hydrocephalus and treat,
perhaps even cure, those cases that do occur.
"Fetal-onset hydrocephalus results in a blockage in brain
development which everyone has always thought was brain damage due
to fluid accumulation," said Dr Jaleel Miyan, the University
of Manchester scientist leading the research.
"There is currently no unequivocal prenatal diagnosis test
or satisfactory treatment other than surgical diversion of the fluid
through a tube, known as a shunt, from the brain to the abdomen
or heart. Shunts are permanent and prone to infection and blockage
so that patients may require several operations during their lifetime.
"This procedure is based on the established clinical view
that this fluid is nothing more than a mechanical support system
within the skull with little, if any, physiological properties and
that hydrocephalus is simply a build up of excess cerebrospinal
fluid in the brain.
"But our studies have shown that the condition may in fact
cause a change in the composition of the fluid and that it is this
chemical change that prevents normal cell division resulting in
arrested brain development.
"We have also been excited by the results of tests that have
shown it may be possible to 'unlock' the potential brain in fetuses
with hydrocephalus using a simple dietary supplement during pregnancy."
That supplement is currently under wraps as studies are completed
to test its potential to cut the rates of hydrocephalus in the same
way folic acid has cut the incidence of spina bifida. In the UK
and US, hydrocephalus affects one child in every 500 live births;
this rises to one in every 100 births in the developing world.
The Florida laboratory is underwritten by an enthusiastic group
of parents who have set up a foundation to fund the research work.
Like Dr Miyan, they believe the condition can be better treated
without the need for surgery and realise the best hope for this
lies with the British scientists collaborating with their local
neurosurgeon Dr Jogi Pattisapu.
Indeed, the team has been hailed the 'flagship research group'
by the President of the Society for Research in Hydrocephalus and
Spina Bifida, Ms Carole Sobkowiak.
Working with Dr Miyan will be Dr Jane Owen-Lynch, from the University
of Lancaster, Professor Carys Bannister, retired neurosurgeon and
visiting Professor in Manchester's Faculty of Life Sciences and
Miss Sarah Cains an MRC funded postgraduate student working on this
project in Manchester.
"The collaboration between the Manchester and Lancaster groups
has produced a significant change in opinion among clinical practitioners
on the role of the fluid within the developing brain," said
Dr Miyan.
"The outdated belief about the role of cerebrospinal fluid,
together with the fact that the condition has many possible causes,
has meant research funding has been poor, both here in the UK and
globally.
"We hope that the potential for rapid progress provided by
the parent-led initiative in Florida will stimulate further significant
funding here in the UK."
Dr Miyan and the team are due to fly out to Florida to begin their
sabbatical posting in December.
Aeron Haworth
aeron.haworth@manchester.ac.uk
University of Manchester
manchester.ac.uk
http://medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=34065
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