ciclosporin has been investigated as a possible neuroprotective agent in conditions such as traumatic brain injury, and has been shown in animal experiments to reduce brain damage associated with injury. ciclosporin blocks the formation of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore, which has been found to cause much of the damage associated with head injury and neurodegenerative diseases. ciclosporin's neuroprotective properties were first discovered in the early 1990s when two researchers (eskil elmér and hiroyuki uchino) were conducting experiments in cell transplantation. an unintended finding was that csa was strongly neuroprotective when it crossed the blood–brain barrier. this same process of mitochondrial destruction through the opening of the mpt pore is implicated in making traumatic brain injuries much worse.