Near-Infrared Light Modulation of Cytochrome C Oxidase in Traumatic Brain Injury

News Release, World Mitochondria Society, Berlin - Germany – June 30, 2022

Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) due to sudden impact to the head alter behavior and impair physical and cognitive function. The outcome of TBI is influenced by the patient’s biological sex besides the severity, type and the area of the brain affected.

Literature on mitochondrial dysfunction mainly focused on exponential reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, increased mitochondrial membrane potential, and altered mitochondrial dynamics as a key player in the outcome to brain injury.

In this study they evaluated the effect of a near-infrared (NIR) light exposure on gene expression in a Drosophila TBI model. NIR interacts with cytochrome c oxidase (COX) of the electron transport chain to reduce mitochondrial membrane potential hyperpolarization, attenuate ROS generation, and apoptosis.

They subjected w1118 male and female flies to TBI using a high-impact trauma (HIT) device and subsequently exposed the isolated fly brains to a COX-inhibitory wavelength of 750 nm for 2 hours. Genome-wide 3′-mRNA-sequencing of fly brains revealed that injured w1118 females exhibit greater changes in transcription compared to males at 1, 2, and 4 hours after TBI.

Confocal images showing change in GFP expression in Repo-GFP flies at control, 1, 2, 4, and 24 hr after TBI in females and males

Inhibiting COX by exposure to NIR downregulated gene expression in injured females but had minimal effect in injured males. Those obtained results suggested that mitochondrial COX modulation with NIR alters gene expression in Drosophila following TBI and the response to injury and NIR exposure varies by biological sex.

Targeting Mitochondria 2022 will specialize a session on "Translational Therapies - Focus on Infrared Therapies" chaired by a where a memeber of this research team Dr. Maik Hüttemann.

Remember that the scientific committee will welcome your abstracts related to this hot topic. Submit abstract.

Full research paper.

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