Brain conditions involving high pressure in the skull have always been very difficult to treat. Now a new study by researchers from the University of Copenhagen, among others, has studied the flow of fluids in the brain using rat models and shown that diabetes medicine is able to reduce intracranial pressure. According to the researchers, the results should lead to more tests on both animal and human subjects.

In a new study published in the journal Science Translational Medicine researchers from the University of Copenhagen and the University of Birmingham have now discovered an easier way of easing intracranial pressure. In isolated trials with rat tissue samples the researchers were able to map the mechanism behind fluid exchange in the brain. This knowledge has led to the discovery that a new diabetes medicine can reduce intracranial pressure among live rats suffering from hydrocephalus.

"We learned that the diabetes medicine exedin–4 could reduces the flow of sodium, which is strongly connected to the flow of fluids into the cranial cavity. And being able to reduce the inflow of fluids, we were also able to lower the intracranial pressure," said one of the authors of the study, Clinical Professor at the Department of Clinical Medicine at the University of Copenhagen Rigmor H. Jensen.

The fluid balance in the brain is regulated by the cobweb–like tissue plexus choroideus. The researchers examined such tissue samples from rats in isolated trials focussing on the flow of fluids through the cells, as they knew that brain fluids flow from the blood through plexus choroideus to the cranial cavity, where it is called cerebrospinal fluid. In these isolated trials the researchers showed that the transport of sodium is vital to the flow of fluids.

Subsequently, the researchers were able to show, using live rats, that the diabetes medicine exedin–4 can be used to lower the pressure in the skull by reducing the transport of sodium – first in healthy rats and then in rats with hydrocephalus. In both cases the medicine worked, reducing the pressure significantly after just 30 minutes. According to the researchers, this suggests that the same type of medicine may in the future be used to treat hydrocephalus if it turns out to have the same effect on humans as on rats.

‘This type of medicine is already used to treat diabetes, which means that tests have shown that it is safe to use. On that basis we should use this medicine in tests on humans suffering from too high pressure in the skull. We expect to get similar results, but of course this requires more research’, says Rigmor H. Jensen who also works at The Danish Headache Center at Rigshospitalet – Glostrup.

She stresses that the researchers need more knowledge of this type of brain condition in general. But she hopes they will be able to find similar results and thus safe forms of treatment for conditions like hydrocephalus. At present the same team of researchers is in the process of testing whether the same applies to idiopathic intracranial hypertension, a serious condition often seen among young, overweight individuals.

The study is titled, ”A glucagon–like peptide–1 receptor agonist reduces intracranial pressure in a rat model of hydrocephalus.”