Researchers have identified the degenerative brain disease known as CTE in a living person, according to a report published this week in the medical journal Neurosurgery.
The paper’s lead author, Bennett Omalu, told an audience last month in San Francisco that physicians discovered CTE in Fred McNeill, a former Minnesota Vikings linebacker, during initial testing of a new method to identify chronic traumatic encephalopathy in the living.
Omalu said his autopsy after McNeill’s death two years ago confirmed the CTE testing from UCLA researchers that began in 2012. McNeill, who played 12 NFL seasons after starring at UCLA, died from complications of ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). He was 63.
To date, the only way that CTE can be definitively diagnosed is after death. Omalu discovered the first case of CTE when examining the brain of former Pittsburgh Steelers star Mike Webster in 2002. Now the San Joaquin medical examiner, Omalu was featured in the movie, “Concussion.”
Researchers are working to develop a test for people still alive so they can begin to study the disease more comprehensively.
The McNeill case offers a potential breakthrough in better understanding a disease that has become a central issue for the long-term cognitive health of professional football players and athletes in other contact sports.
Neurologists believe the disease can lead to memory loss, dementia, depression, suicidal behavior and Alzheimer’s.
A study by Boston University neurosurgeons reported that 110 of the 111 brains of former NFL players examined had CTE. But researchers need to broaden their studies to the general population to determine why the disease is happening and how it might be treated.
An early breakthrough came two years ago when UCLA researchers published a study of how they identified what appeared to be CTE in 14 former football players with a new diagnostic exam. The UCLA scientists used PET scans and a chemical marker known as FDDNP to measure abnormal brain proteins called tau that are associated with the disease.
But the scan also identifies protein found in Alzheimer’s patients, making it difficult for a definitive conclusion. That’s one reason Omalu performed a postmortem exam of McNeill to confirm the results.
The UCLA group is working with Omalu and others to see if their radioactive tracer, called a TauMark, is the answer. They hope to get the first FDA approved method to identify CTE in the living.
“We’re in the experimental phases,” Omalu told an audience last month at the Commonwealth Club of California. “We can’t use it as a diagnosis until proven.
“We need a couple million of dollars. What is stopping us is the money. We’re ready to roll.”
Other medical researchers also are working toward an accepted diagnostic tool for CTE in the living. The National Institutes of Health and National Institute of Neurological Disorders is funding a seven-year, $16 million study. Also, a New York neurologist is working on a technique to detect CTE in the living, according to media reports in September.
