Potential use of calpain inhibitors as brain injury therapy

Abstract

Existing therapies for traumatic brain injuries (TBI) only relieve the symptoms of patients but do not treat the underlying causes that lead to debilitating effects of the trauma. One of the well understood molecular mechanism of TBI is the hyperactivation of the calpain enzyme. The need for drugs to inhibit the effect of the enzyme is viewed as one of the neurotherapies for traumatic brain injury. In this chapter, we summarize one of the strategies in finding small molecules to slow down or even eliminate the devastating effect of calpain hyperactivation.