Scientists have developed an incredible antibody that could be used to treat traumatic brain injury and even prevent long-term neurodegeneration.

The recent study is the first to link traumatic brain injury to Alzheimer's disease and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), and offers a potential for early intervention, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center reported.

The research team found a misshapen isoform of the tau protein can develop in as little as 12 hours after TBI onset, leading to a chain reaction of neural death that can eventually lead to neurodegeneration. The researchers demonstrated a "potent" antibody can effectively seek out and destroy the harmful protein.

"TBI is a leading cause of death and disability in children and young adults and also affects approximately 20 percent of the more than two million troops who have deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan," said co-senior author Kun Ping Lu, Chief of the Division of Translational Therapeutics in the Department of Medicine at BIDMC and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS). "Our study shows that an early neurodegenerative process induced by the toxic tau protein can begin just hours after a traumatic brain injury."

The new antibody prevents the onset of widespread neurodegeneration by identifying and neutralizing the destructive protein, dubbed cis P-tau, and revitalizing neurons.

"Healthy tau protein is found in the brain and serves to assemble and support microtubules, the 'scaffolding systems' that give neurons their unique shape and are integral to memory and normal brain functioning," Lu said. "Recent studies of CTE in the brains of boxers, American football players and blast-exposed veterans have identified extensive neurofibrillary tau tangles. But, because these tangles were not detected until months or, more likely, years after TBI, it has not been known whether tauopathy is a cause or a consequence of TBI-related neurodegenerative disease. We have now shown that it is a cause of these diseases."

Monoclonal antibody technology allowed the researchers to detect and neutralize toxic cis P-tau, while leaving healthy trans P-tau proteins intact.

"We have...determined that the cis antibody can treat TBI and prevent its long-term consequences in mouse models. The next important steps will be to establish cis P-tau as a new biomarker to help enable early detection, and to humanize the cis antibody for treating patients with TBI," Lu said.

The findings were published in a recent edition of the journal Nature.