Grant: Doctoral Research Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

The spinal cord transmits signals from the brain to the rest of the body to perform important bodily functions. When the spinal cord is injured, brain signals might not reach below the level of injury. This lack of brain signaling can lead to devastating consequences such as reductions in mobility and heart function which are two of the top concerns for affected individuals. As no effective treatment is available for spinal cord injury and new drug development is tedious and costly, it is opportune to consider whether existing drugs that are approved for other uses may work in the setting of spinal cord injury. To do this, our research team identified all of the genes that change in response to spinal cord injury and then identified the best drug that is already approved for clinical use that targets these genes. The drug sulfaphenazole, which is an antibiotic, emerged as the top drug known to target these genes. To test whether this drug may work in spinal cord injury, I conducted a small-scale preliminary study in a rodent model that showed that sulfaphenazole improved how these genes respond to spinal cord injury and additionally improved heart function. The next steps that I will target in this application are: first, to devise the optimal drug dose and timing in our rodent model; second, to validate our preliminary findings with additional rodents and to further investigate the effects of sulfaphenazole on mobility and heart function; and third, to determine the drug's method of action. The overarching goal of this project is to devise a time-sensitive drug-therapy to improve mobility and heart function after spinal cord injury in a rodent model with aim for future translational purposes to humans with spinal cord injury.