Title:New Insights into Oxidative Damage and Iron Associated Impairment in Traumatic Brain Injury
Volume: 25
Issue: 45
Author(s): Nicolas Toro-Urrego, Liliana F. Turner and Marco F. Avila-Rodriguez*
Affiliation:
- Grupo Modelos Experimentales para las Ciencias Zoohumanas - Departamento de Ciencias Clínicas- Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad del Tolima- Ibagué, Tolima,Colombia
Keywords:
Traumatic Brain Injury, Iron, Iron chelators, neuroprotection, traumatic brain injury, oxidative damage.
Abstract: Traumatic Brain Injury is considered one of the most prevalent causes of death around the world; more
than seventy millions of individuals sustain the condition per year. The consequences of traumatic brain injury on
brain tissue are complex and multifactorial, hence, the current palliative treatments are limited to improve patients’
quality of life. The subsequent hemorrhage caused by trauma and the ongoing oxidative process generated
by biochemical disturbances in the in the brain tissue may increase iron levels and reactive oxygen species. The
relationship between oxidative damage and the traumatic brain injury is well known, for that reason, diminishing
factors that potentiate the production of reactive oxygen species have a promissory therapeutic use. Iron chelators
are molecules capable of scavenging the oxidative damage from the brain tissue and are currently in use for ironoverload-
derived diseases.
Here, we show an updated overview of the underlying mechanisms of the oxidative damage after traumatic brain
injury. Later, we introduced the potential use of iron chelators as neuroprotective compounds for traumatic brain
injury, highlighting the action mechanisms of iron chelators and their current clinical applications.