Pro Football Hall of Famers are among those touting a new Flag Football Under 14 campaign, highlighting the risk of a degenerative brain disorder called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. CTE is caused by repeated head trauma, and it can cause memory loss, aggression, and eventually, dementia. There’s currently no treatment or cure. The only sure prevention is to avoid repeated hits to the head, as in tackle football.
Now, two different research groups have published work implicating a protein known as Tau in the development of CTE. Tangled masses of erroneously modified Tau proteins are associated with a number of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and ALS (Lou Gerig’s Disease). One of the new studies found that the version of Tau found in the brains of CTE patients is the same as the one involved in ALS.
Michael Strong, Dean of the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and Distinguished University Professor at Western University, says that gives researchers a huge boost in developing possible treatments for CTE.
“We already know the drug panel that we would need to test,” Strong said.
Those drugs could interrupt the process that leads to Tau tangles, preventing brain damage. Strong says he’s hopeful that human trials could be just a handful of years away.
