The researchers observed an increase in the formation of new neurons in an area that is important to the memory (the hippocampus) during the period in which they received lithium, but their maturity into full nerve cells only occurred once the lithium treatment was discontinued.

“From this, we conclude that lithium, given along the lines of this model, can help to heal the damage caused by radiotherapy, even long after it was caused,” says lead author Giulia Zanni, postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University and former PhD student in Klas Blomgren’s group at Karolinska Institutet.

The research group has previously shown that lithium protects against brain damage if given in connection with radiotherapy as it can prevent apoptosis (cell death). They now want to start clinical trials in the hope that they will be able to produce the first drug treatment for damage caused by the irradiation of the brain.

Need to take care of the damage