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Novel Nanodrug Platform for Pharmacologically Inducing Therapeutic Hypothermia (TH) After Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
Location: 11
Mentor: Dr. Jorge David Tovar Castro
Traumatic brain injuries (TBI) are a pressing health concern, affecting around 1.7 million people annually in the United States and contributing to 50,000 deaths. Primary injuries, occurring post-initial trauma, remain elusive in terms of prevention, however, secondary injuries have seen advancements in prevention. Therapeutic Hypothermia (TH) is a prevalent TBI treatment, yet its current modalities, such as surface or intravascular cooling catheters, encounter challenges due to limited ambulance accessibility, hindering prompt intervention. Additionally, the initiation of these methods may need hours to reach core brain temperatures conducive to preventing secondary mechanisms. This study addresses these obstacles by investigating the rapid reduction of brain temperatures via intranasal (IN) administration of innovative nano vanilloid drugs. The resulting nano drug, Nanoolvanil, when administered IN, bypasses the blood-brain barrier (BBB) via the olfactory or trigeminal nerve pathways, quickly and effectively inducing therapeutic hypothermia (Marcello, 2023). Moreover, our investigation aims to optimize the concentration of a non-pungent vanilloid in nanodrug form to enhance therapeutic hypothermia efficacy upon the IN delivery. There are several vanilloids we have researched: olvanil, rinvanil, arvanil, palvanil, and dihydrocapsiate (DHC). This innovative method addresses the need for more accessible TBI intervention and explores the use of IN nanodrug administration to bypass the BBB, creating a direct drug transportation to neural cells. Our results showed that our olvanil nanodrug formulation can effectively induce therapeutic hypothermia in the in vivo studies upon optimization of delivery and formulation, showing it can be used in human treatment and improve TBI prevention and treatment success.
