Back to top anchor

Treatment of GABAergic interneuron dysfunction in preterm brain injury

Year:
2020
Duration:
52 months
Approved budget:
$1,186,646.95
Researchers:
Associate Professor Justin Dean
,
Post Doctoral Fellow
,
Professor Alistair Gunn
,
Professor Laura Bennet
Health issue:
Neurological (CNS)
Proposal type:
Project
Lay summary
Exposure to reduced oxygen and blood flow (hypoxia-ischemia) to the brain in early life is a known trigger for a range of neurodevelopmental disorders, which show common impairments in growth and connectivity of neurons in the brain. We have discovered a new role for the proteins and sugars that surround neurons (the extracellular matrix) in controlling normal brain development. This study will examine, for the first time, whether abnormal breakdown of a key extracellular matrix sugar, hyaluronan, causes impaired neuron development following early-life hypoxia-ischemia, and whether pharmacological blockade of this abnormal hyaluronan breakdown can promote normal brain development.