An international team of investigators led by experts at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has been awarded a nearly $3 million, five-year grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) to establish diagnostic criteria for chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

he Penn-led team will search for common pathological changes in the post-mortem brains of over 200 patients with a history of traumatic brain injury and for comparison, over 1,500 postmortem brains from patients with other neurodegenerative diseases who were followed over time as part of other NIH funded grants at Penn. Research activities will include identifying proteins that show evidence of neurodegenerative damage; documenting gross anatomical changes such as brain atrophy; and uncovering underlying biochemical and genetic alterations.

“We want to see which pathological changes consistently occur in CTE and assess whether they are similar to or different than those in other major neurodegenerative diseases,” said co-lead researcher Douglas Smith, MD, the Robert A. Groff Professor of Teaching and Research in Neurosurgery at Penn and director of the Penn Center for Brain Injury and Repair.

CTE is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that afflicts the brains of people who have primarily suffered repeated concussions, such as athletes who take part in contact sports, and in some individuals with a history of a single severe traumatic brain injury. Symptoms of CTE are comparable to other neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and include memory loss, confusion, depression and difficulty paying attention and organizing thoughts. However, it remains unknown how the neuropathological changes associated with CTE affect these symptoms. In addition, an authoritative diagnosis of CTE can only be made after death, when an autopsy can determine whether brain changes currently tied to CTE are present.