`Study Finds Benefits of Olive Oil and Albumin for Treatment of Spinal Injuries - Olive Oil Times

Study Finds Benefits of Olive Oil and Albumin for Treatment of Spinal Injuries

By Naomi Tupper
Feb. 8, 2012 21:20 UTC

Recent research car­ried out at the National Hospital of Paraplegics in Toledo, Spain, has shown promis­ing effects of a com­po­nent of olive oil in com­bi­na­tion with albu­min in the treat­ment of some spinal injuries.

Oleic Acid mol­e­cules, extracted from olive oil and the main pro­tein in blood have demon­strated poten­tial uses in pain relief and recov­ery from spinal trauma in ani­mal mod­els.

This research car­ries on from work done at the Institute of Neurosciences in Castilla and Leon, where the neu­trotrophic (growth of neu­rons) fac­tor, a mol­e­cule of albu­min and oleic acid com­bined, was dis­cov­ered.

Experiments thus far have shown three poten­tially ben­e­fi­cial effects in ani­mals exposed to spinal trauma. These included increased neu­ron growth, anti-inflam­ma­tory prop­er­ties, which could help main­tain spinal cord struc­ture after injury, and a painkilling’ effect, sug­gested by reduced exci­ta­tion in the dam­aged spinal cord after appli­ca­tion.

The stud­ies were car­ried out using the olive vari­ety known as Cornicabra, found in the moun­tain­ous regions of Toledo.

While con­firm­ing these find­ings show promise for use in human treat­ment, Dr Julian Scott Taylor, head of the study, stressed that fur­ther ani­mal stud­ies are required before human tri­als can be com­menced.

Toxicology of the com­pound must be thor­oughly inves­ti­gated along with test­ing to deter­mine if the com­pound can be used intra­venously in humans. However, once ani­mal test­ing is com­pleted, the drug has been approved for tri­als in humans on a European level.

This would allow the team, in con­junc­tion with Lipopharm Biopharmaceuticals to patent the clin­i­cal trial use of oleic acid and albu­min in the treat­ment of spinal cord injuries, pro­vid­ing fund­ing can be obtained to con­tinue research in the cur­rent eco­nomic down­turn.

Olive oil polyphe­nols have also been indi­cated as poten­tially ben­e­fi­cial in a study car­ried out by Lorestan University of Medical Sciences in Iran. That study demon­strated pro­tec­tive effects of oleu­ropein, an antiox­i­dant polyphe­nol from olive oil, in rats with spinal trauma show­ing the pos­si­bil­ity of a pro­tec­tive effect against sec­ondary injury.



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