Jérôme Badaut laureate of the National Institute of Health

Jérôme Badaut (BMI, INCIA) is laureate of an R21 funding from the National Institute of Neuronal Disorders and Stroke (NINDS – National Institute of Health, USA) in co-PI with Dr Bix (Neuroscience department, Tulane University School of Medicine ; New Orleans, USA) for a collaborative project called : “Perlecan therapy for white matter and cognitive impairment in closed head injury with long-term dysfunction (CHILD)“.

About the project

Several clinical studies have shown that TBI as a risk factor for neurodegenerative diseases. It has been recently illustrated by the renct publication from Dr Macay and collaborators in the New England Journal of Medicine (October 21, 2019; DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1908483): soccer professional players suffer of higher mortality than the rest of the population due to neurodegenerative disease, possibly caused by chronic traumatic encephalopathy!

It is very important to highlight that mild juvenile traumatic brain injury (jmTBI) represents more than 80% of Emergency visits. It represents a major public health issue, that is associated with a risk factor for cognitive decline and dementia. Therefore, it is critical to have a better understanding of the long-term changes in order to accurately develop new treatments to prevent these long-term cognitive sequelae. Drs Badaut and Bix proposed a unique research project that will characterize the neurovascular dysfunction and extracellular matrix (ECM) degradation that occurs in white matter (WM) after jmTBI. They will test whether the neuroprotective and angiogenic C-terminal protein fragment domain V (DV) of the vascular ECM heparan sulfate proteoglycan perlecan, is acutely generated and plays a significant, potentially beneficial role to WM’s response to- and long-term cognitive consequences of jmTBI. Positive outcome from this project will give unique opportunity to develop new therapeutical approach.