Neurotrophin Treatment for Pediatric Brain Injury

候选人的目标是成为儿科创伤性脑损伤的独立临床医生兼科学家 (TBI)由一群杰出的导师和来自加州大学的咨询委员会进行培训 宾夕法尼亚州和德雷克塞尔大学医学院是儿科脑损伤领域的权威 研究。宾夕法尼亚大学和德雷克塞尔大学的环境拥有丰富的资源和人员，所以这位初级 研究人员将变得更加熟练地掌握实验室技能、科学写作、研究设计和 本研究提案中概述的实验方法。 胡医生是宾夕法尼亚大学费城儿童医院的儿科重症监护医生 负责照顾患有创伤性脑损伤(TBI)的儿童。尽管事实是TBI是 儿童获得性残疾和死亡的头号原因，只有支持性护理才能在 急性期。头部受伤的儿童往往会出现慢性学习(认知)缺陷。 脑外伤后，大脑似乎会瞬间增加被称为神经营养因子的内源性分子 如胰岛素样生长因子I(IGF-I)和神经生长因子(NGF)，它们在 通过促进树突状细胞的生长、突触效应和抑制，对儿童脑功能恢复很重要 涉及创伤性轴突损伤的钙蛋白水解酶。使用临床相关的闭合头模型 在儿科大鼠损伤中，目前的研究建议的目标是证明外源性 给予这些营养因子将促进树突状细胞的生长，突触效率，并抑制钙蛋白酶- 介导轴突损伤以预防慢性认知缺陷。 这些研究与公共卫生非常相关，因为它将为未来的调查提供理论基础。 对于开发新的翻译疗法以抑制与慢性疾病相关的细胞过程的候选人 行为缺陷和促进脑损伤儿童的脑康复。

The candidate's goal is to become an independent clinician-scientist in.pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) by training with an outstanding group of mentors and an advisory committee from the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University College of Medicine who are authorities in the field of pediatric TBI research. The environment at Penn and Drexel are rich with resources and personnel so that this junior investigator will become more facile with laboratory skills, scientific writing, research design, and experimental methodology outlined in this research proposal. Dr. Huh is a pediatric critical care physician at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, who takes care of children with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Despite the fact that TBI is the number one cause of acquired disability and death in children, only supportive care can be provided in the acute setting. Head-injured children are often left with chronic learning (cognitive) deficits. Following TBI,the brain appears to transiently increase endogenous molecules called neurotrophic factors such as Insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) and Nerve growth factor (NGF), whose expression is highest in the pediatric brain and important for recovery by promoting dendritic growth, synaptic efficacy, and inhibiting calpains, proteases implicated in traumatic axonal damage. Using a clinically relevant model of closed head injury in pediatric rats, the goal of the current research proposal is to demonstrate that the exogenous administration of these trophic factors will enhance dendritic growth, synaptic efficacy, and inhibit calpain- mediated axonal injury to prevent chronic cognitive deficits. These studies are very relevant to public health because it will provide the rationale for future investigations for the candidate to develop novel translational therapies to inhibit cellular processes associated with chronic behavioral deficits and to enhance brain recovery in head-injured children.