Abstract
Mitochondrial dysfunction and tissue hypoxia are major contributors to neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative disease, but research into novel therapies is hampered because these pathologies are largely invisible to most imaging techniques. This limitation can be overcome by advances in near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) which allow mitochondrial function, blood haemodynamics and oxygenation to be assessed in vivo, thereby illuminating (literally!) how energy dysfunction contributes to neurological damage. Our goal is to create novel protocols for multispectral imaging, and then to apply them to animal models of ageing and neuroinflammatory disease to explore the efficacy of new neuroprotective strategies.
References
K.K. Ida, K.I. Chisholm, L.M.S. Malbouisson, D.B. Papkovsky, A. Dyson, M. Singer, M.R. Duchen, K.J. Smith. Protection of cerebral microcirculation, mitochondrial function and electrocortical activity by small-volume resuscitation with terlipressin in a model of haemorrhagic shock. Brit. J. Anaesthesia. 2017. In Press
S. Martinez Sosa, K.J. Smith. Understanding a role for hypoxia in lesion formation and location in the deep and periventricular white matter in small vessel disease and multiple sclerosis. Clinical Science. 2017;131:2503–2524.
R.A. Desai, A.L. Davies, M. Tachrount, M. Kasti, F. Laulund, X. Golay, K.J. Smith. Cause and prevention of demyelination in a model multiple sclerosis lesion. Ann. Neurol. 2016;79:591-604.
Caldwell, M., Moroz, T., Hapuarachchi, T., Bainbridge, A., Robertson, N. J., Cooper, C. E., . . . Tachtsidis, I. (2015). Modelling Blood Flow and Metabolism in the Preclinical Neonatal Brain during and Following Hypoxic-Ischaemia. PloS one, 10(10), e0140171. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0140171
Bainbridge, A., Tachtsidis, I., Faulkner, S. D., Price, D., Zhu, T., Baer, E., . . . Golay, X. (2014). Brain mitochondrial oxidative metabolism during and after cerebral hypoxia-ischemia studied by simultaneous phosphorus magnetic-resonance and broadband near-infrared spectroscopy.. Neuroimage, 102 Pt 1, 173-183. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.08.016