Novel Neuroprotective Roles for Neuregulins in the Trea*

中风是美国第三大死亡原因，也是导致长期残疾的主要原因。 然而，在开发缺血性中风的治疗方法方面进展甚微。 因此，该项目的总体目标是开发和表征一种新的神经保护疗法。 卒中。神经调节蛋白被认为与正常的大脑功能和以下神经保护有关 脑缺血。我们实验室最近的研究表明，单剂量、低剂量(2.5 ng/kg)的 动脉注射神经调节蛋白-1(NRG-1)减少大鼠局灶性脑缺血诱导的神经元死亡 卒中模型增加约90%，治疗窗至少5.5小时。NRG-1管理也导致了 神经功能的显著改善。神经保护与抑制有关 细胞凋亡、星形胶质细胞增生症和白介素1mRNA的表达。我们已经通过基因芯片证明了 分析认为，NRG-1不仅阻断了白细胞介素1的表达，而且还减弱了广泛传播的模式 缺血后促炎症和应激基因的表达。我们进一步表明，NRG-1直接 利用培养的巨噬细胞阻断促炎基因的表达。因此，我们假设 NRG-1在调控局灶性卒中后的神经保护和炎症方面发挥重要作用。 因此，神经调节蛋白代表了一种新的、有效的神经保护策略，具有潜在的治疗价值 治疗急性缺血性中风后的个体。该项目的中心假设是，神经调节蛋白是 促进缺血后神经元存活和功能恢复的新型神经保护剂 具有延长治疗窗口的中风。为了验证我们的假设，我们将使用以下一组 具体目标： (1)研究NRG-1的剂量依赖性和异构体特异性的神经保护作用 缺血，(2)确定其参与的生理和药理机制(S NRG-1对脑缺血后的神经保护作用及(3)治疗窗和 NRG-1对脑缺血的远期神经保护作用。这项研究将为一部小说和 可能是神经调节蛋白在缺血性脑损伤中的关键作用。这些研究具有巨大的临床应用价值。 在治疗缺血性中风方面有潜力，并可能带来新的治疗策略。

Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the United States and the major cause of long-term disability. However, very little progress has been made in the development of treatments for ischemic stroke. Therefore, the overall goal of this project is to develop and characterize a novel neuroprotective therapy for stroke. Neuregulins have been implicated in normal brain function, as well as in neuroprotection following cerebral ischemia. Recent work from our lab demonstrated that a single, low dose (2.5ng/kg) of intra-arterially administered neuregulin-1 (NRG-1) reduced ischemia-induced neuronal death in a rat focal stroke model by ~90% with a therapeutic window of at least 5.5 hours. NRG-1 administration also resulted in a significant improvement of neurological function. The neuroprotection was associated with the inhibition of apoptosis, astrogliosis and interleukin-1 mRNA expression. We have demonstrated by microarray analysis, that NRG-1 not only blocked interleukin-1 expression, but also attenuated the widespread pattern of pro-inflammatory and stress gene expression following ischemia. We further showed that NRG-1 directly blocked pro-inflammatory gene expression using cultured macrophages. We therefore hypothesize that NRG-1 plays an important role in regulating both neuroprotection and inflammation following focal stroke. Thus, neuregulins represent a novel, potent neuroprotective strategy that has potential therapeutic value in treating individuals after acute ischemic stroke. The central hypothesis of this project is that neuregulins are novel neuroprotective agents that promote neuronal survival and functional recovery following ischemic stroke with an extended therapeutic window. To test our hypothesis, we will employ the following set of specific aims: (1) To examine the dose-dependent and isoform-specific neuroprotective effects of NRG-1 following ischemia, (2) To determine the physiological and pharmacological mechanism(s) involved in the neuroprotective effects of NRG-1 following ischemia and (3) determine the therapeutic window and long-term effects for NRG-1 neuroprotective in ischemia. This study will give new insight to a novel and perhaps pivotal role for neuregulins in ischemic brain injury. These studies herein have enormous clinical potential and could lead to new therapeutic strategies in the treatment of ischemic stroke.