The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke has awarded $2.5 million to a research team at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center for a project aimed at finding new ways to treat brain damage caused by lack of oxygen at birth. Helena Parfenova, PhD, professor in the Department of Physiology, is principal investigator on the project. Massroor Pourcyrous, MD, professor in the Division of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, is co-investigator.
For over 25 years, productive collaboration between Dr. Parfenova, a basic scientist, and Dr. Pourcyrous, a clinical scientist, has centered on prevention and treatment of cerebrovascular disease that occurs due to devastating neonatal brain disorders, including epilepsy and asphyxia. With this new award, the team will focus on novel mechanisms that could keep the brain and its blood vessels working properly in newborns when they experience prolonged asphyxiation.
Neonatal asphyxia is a leading cause of neurodevelopment issues. Early research suggests an enzyme called Nox4 is the main producer of harmful oxygen particles in the brain’s blood vessels when a newborn does not get enough oxygen. On the other hand, H2S, a gas enzymatically produced by astrocytes, acts as an antioxidant, protecting cells from damage. Building on this knowledge, Dr. Parfenova and Dr. Pourcyrous are proposing a new form of neurovascular cell-directed therapy that combines selectively blocking the Nox4 enzyme while increasing the body’s H2S-based antioxidant defenses.
Read more at our UTHSC news site.