Grant: Project Grant

Our ultimate goal is to contribute to the development of a drug treatment for the long-term cognitive impairments caused by traumatic brain injury (TBI). There are currently no FDA-approved treatments for any cognitive problem associated with TBI. While there are a number of groups working on treatments for the motor and memory impairments resulting from TBI, many of which are designed to be administered acutely following TBI (i.e. within 48 hrs), far less research is focused on trying to improve chronic, long-lasting impairments in cognitive function. Our research aims to model deficits in impulse control, a core psychiatric symptom of disorders such as bipolar disorder, impulsive aggression, substance abuse and suicidality. All these psychiatric disorders are more common, and more severe, in patients with a prior TBI. Moreover, patients typically do not seek treatment for these conditions until months/years after the initial insult. An animal model capable of capturing long-lasting elevations in TBI-induced impulsivity and vulnerability to drug addiction could stimulate research into treatments for these psychiatric complications. Our pilot data demonstrate that even milder TBI results in stable, long-lasting increases in impulsivity, and cocaine-taking. Furthermore, TBI-induced impulsivity correlates significantly with the level of a signaling molecule in the immune system called interleukin-(IL)-12. The experiments in this grant are designed to test our idea that inhibiting IL-12 may therefore improve TBI-induced impulse control deficits and reduce the elevated addiction risk caused by TBI. Such findings could then form the basis of a novel treatment for impulse control disorders caused by TBI.