Skip to navigation | Skip to content

Blue food dye may treat injured spines

blue food dye

The researchers found the dye reduced the severity of spinal damage without any evident toxicity (Source: iStockphoto)

A common and safe blue food dye might provide the best treatment available so far for spinal cord injuries, US researchers report.

Tests in rats showed the dye, called brilliant blue G, a close relative of the common food dye Blue no. 1, crossed into the spinal fluid and helped block inflammation, Dr Maiken Nedergaard of the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York and colleagues write.


"We have no effective treatment now for patients who have an acute spinal cord injury," says Dr Steven Goldman, who worked on the study.


When nerve cells in the brain or spine are damaged, they often release a spurt of chemicals that causes nearby cells to die. One of the chemicals is ATP.

No one is sure why, and stopping this process is key to preventing the damage that continues to build after a stroke or spinal cord injury.


Nedergaard's team looked for something that would interfere with ATP and found the blue dye, which they called BBG, would do this via the P2X7R receptor or doorway.

"We found that [intravenous] administration of the P2X7R inhibitor BBG significantly reduced the severity of spinal cord damage without any evident toxicity," they write.

"Remarkably, BBG is a derivative of the widely used food additive FD&C Blue number 1. Currently, more than 1 million pounds of FD&C blue dye No. 1 are consumed yearly in the United States, corresponding to a daily intake of 16 milligrams per person."


Nedergaard cautions that tests in humans are likely still years away.

Treatment would have to be immediate, she adds, because the damage to nerve cells is irreversible.

Tags: health, medical-procedures, medical-research