Common food dye may hold promise in treating spinal cord injury

A common food additive that gives M&Ms and Gatorade their blue tint may offer promise for preventing the additional - and serious - secondary damage that immediately follows a traumatic injury to the spinal cord. In an article published online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers report that the compound Brilliant Blue G (BBG) stops the cascade of molecular events that cause secondary damage to the spinal cord in the hours following a spinal cord injury, an injury known to expand the injured area in the spinal cord and permanently worsen the paralysis for patients.

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