Brain injury causes a loss of smell and taste

The sense of taste and smell can be lost or impaired after head trauma, according to a new study by scientists at the University of Montreal, Lucie Bruneau Rehabilitation Centre and the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Rehabilitation of Greater Montreal. Published in the journal Brain Injury, the survey found that mild to severe traumatic brain injury could cause loss of smell.

“The study clearly shows that olfactory deficits may occur in mild traumatic brain injury, and moderate and severe head trauma patients,” said study co-author and neuropsychologist Maurice Ptito, a professor in the School of University of Montreal optometry. “We also found that patients with frontal lesions were more likely to olfactory dysfunction.

The research team recruited 49 people with traumatic brain injury (73 percent of men with a mean age of 43) who completed a questionnaire and underwent two tests to measure the loss of smell the smell. The result: 55 percent of subjects had an impaired sense of smell, while 41 percent of the participants were aware of their olfactory deficit.

“Both tests have shown similar results in patients with frontal lesions are more likely to suffer a loss of smell,” said lead author, Audrey Fortin, a professor at the School of Optometry at the University of Montreal and researcher at the Center réadaptation Bruneau Lucie.

Smell plays a crucial role in our lives, “said Fortin, from olfactory influences what we eat can help us detect gas leaks or fires. The smell is also a huge impact on interpersonal relationships, problems associated olfactory poor quality of life, depression, mood swings, anxiety about personal hygiene, loss of appetite and difficulty of the kitchen.

“Olfactory dysfunctions have a negative impact on daily life, health and safety,” said Dr. Fortin. “It’s important to pay attention to this problem once the patient has stabilized after a traumatic brain injury.”

About TBI and anosmia

traumatic brain injury (TBI) occurs when the head suddenly and violently hits an object or when an object pierces the skull and enters brain tissue. Symptoms of TBI can be mild, moderate or severe disease is more common among adolescents, young adults and the elderly. Anosmia is the inability to smell. The olfactory nerve is the only cranial nerve frequently injured after a mild traumatic brain injury, which may serve to diminish the sense of smell or complete loss of smell.
Like a wayward driver slammed the brakes, a special class of T cells may limit the effectiveness of therapeutic vaccines for HIV by slowing the immune system too soon, the report of the University of Pittsburgh researchers at Health Sciences latest issue of PLoS ONE. Their study, the first to examine the role of regulatory T cells in therapeutic vaccines against HIV, could help researchers improve the effectiveness of these vaccines in the development of methods to prevent the brake mechanism of these cells.

Regulatory T cells (Treg) are essential because they prevent the immune system turns against itself by suppressing the immune response. Without the braking action of Treg, autoimmune disease can thrive. But if these cells are closing the immune response of a therapeutic vaccine had the opportunity to boost immunity against HIV?

Pitt researchers sought to answer that question as a follow up of a clinical trial of a therapeutic vaccine against HIV basis for dendritic cells to activate became the murderer or CD8 T cell response The first time in 2008, their results indicate that the limited success of vaccines in the 17 patients enrolled in the trial. For this study, the researchers returned to the refrigerator, removing Treg from patient samples of blood cells and found that it was masking an increase twice in the immune response to HIV vaccine induced.

“When we take blood Treg cells, we found a much stronger immune response to the vaccine, which gives us an overview of how we can develop more effective vaccines against HIV,” said Charles R. Rinaldo Jr., PhD, Professor and Chair, Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, Pitt Graduate School of Public Health and lead author of the study. “Normally closed CD8 Treg responses once the infection has been controlled, but in this case, it seems to be putting the brakes earlier and perhaps reduce the ability of the vaccine to do its job effectively.”

One theory is that the readers of HIV infection in Treg, which in turn answer to CD8 T cells HIV-1-specific, “she said.

“We know how to treat HIV, but are still learning how to use immunotherapy strategies to rinse completely out of the body,” said Macatangay JC Bernard, MD, Deputy Director of the University of Pittsburgh laboratory of immunology and senior author of the study. “Our results show Treg play an important role, but we must find a way to maintain a balance in these cells to get around without blocking it completely.”