Acute and chronic spinal cord injury: novel studies of synaptogenesis, plasticity and mechanisms of repair

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Spinal cord injury (SCI) leads to severe disability, but in nearly all cases there is some recovery in function over the first year following injury. We intend to find out more about these spontaneous recovery processes in order to try and develop therapies to increase the extent of recovery. For example, using special recording techniques we will study changes in nerve fibre conduction at early and late stages following SCI to see when conduction is compromised and how this changes over time. We have an enzyme therapy which can dissolve molecules that are present in SCI scar tissue. We need to optimise ways of delivering large amounts of this enzyme to the spinal cord while minimising the trauma of repeated administration. We have a new way of delivering the enzyme so that it gets into cells at the spinal cord scar, where it is most needed, and we will test whether this can improve function. We will also use novel techniques to show whether new fibres that have sprouted following this therapy can transmit signals to other nerve cells by studying nerve cell connectivity using special fluorescent probes that light up only when there is activity between cells. Finally we will use techniques to show the molecular signals that change in injured cells when treated with this therapy so that we can target them directly with new drugs. This research will be important for developing therapeutic strategies for treating spinal injured patients.