Adaptive rewiring of the mature brain after injury

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Recovery from stroke or traumatic brain injury is limited in part by the inability of mature neurons to reorganize their connections significantly. Such reorganization may require both positive stimuli to activate neurons' intrinsic growth state and methods to overcome inhibitory signals that normally suppress growth. Inosine, a purine nucleoside, activates a cellular signaling pathway that regulates the expression of genes important for axon outgrowth. In mature rats, inosine stimulates the reorganization of major cortical pathways after transecting a specific fiber tract or after a unilateral stroke. This reorganization allows projections from the intact hemisphere to partially reinnervate brainstem and spinal cord areas that have lost their normal inputs, and results in improved behavioral outcome. Aim 1 will investigate whether agents that help overcome inhibitory influences on axon growth can enhance the effects of inosine on neural reorganization and behavioral outcome. Aim 2 will investigate whether intensive training after unilateral brain damage itself promotes axonal reorganization, and whether such training will augment the effects of inosine treatment. Finally, there is a limited time window after brain injury in which inosine treatment must begin in order to achieve long-lasting benefits. Aim 3 will attempt to identify genes whose expression enables neurons to respond to inosine during this "window of opportunity", as well as genes that are expressed as a result of inosine treatment during this period. This will be done using laser-capture microdissection to isolate cortical pyramidal cells and microarrays to identify genes whose expression is selectively altered. The second part of Aim 3 will use a gene therapy approach to investigate the effects of altering the expression of genes related to axon growth in cortical pyramidal cells. These studies will increase our understanding of plasticity in the mature brain and potentially enable us to improve functional outcome after injury.