Patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting while on cardiopulmonary artery bypass have the risk of suffering from illnesses that damage nerve cells: strokes, brain and spinal cord injuries.

However, scientists have just conducted the first clinical trial of giving xenon gas to these patients to prevent post-operative brain damage that could happen after such a procedure.

Earlier preclinical work by the team showed that xenon was effective as a neuroprotectant, stopping processes present during strokes or brain and spinal cord injuries that would damage nerve cells. They found that xenon was capable of blocking the effects of a particular type of glutamate receptor, the same receptor implicated in the pathway that leads to nerve cell death.

The discovery that xenon acted as a neuroprotectant came about when Professor Nick Franks, a biophysicist from Imperial College London was investigating possible molecular targets which could be responsible for the action of different anaesthetics.

Although it would still take clinical trials, with these promising findings, the research team hopes that xenon administration develops into a novel treatment, a procedure that paramedics could administer to stroke and brain-injured victims to stop ongoing nerve cell death.

Source: [Science Daily]