Head injuries can alter hundreds of genes and lead to serious brain diseases

Research has shown that head injuries can cause damage to hundreds of genes in the brain that can cause an increase of a risk to obtain a neurological or psychiatric disorder. In the article it is said that for the first time researchers believed they found the master genes that control several hundreds of other genes that are linked to Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, stroke, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, depression, schizophrenia and other disorders. From this finding, scientists can now learn how the master genes work in order to find new pharmaceuticals to treat these brain diseases. Damage to these master genes can cause a chain effect to cause damage to other hundreds of genes as well. The damage can change the gene in two ways; the first being proteins that are produced by these genes are irregular and the second being the number of expressed copies of a gene in a cell is changed. Both of these lead to a gene not working properly and causing the wrong form of protein to be produced, leading to diseases like Alzheimer's.

This new finding is huge for scientists! This is a step for them to find new ways to treat existing head injuries and diseases but also this is a step to find new ways to repair damaged cells in the brain.

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