Grant: Operating Grant

Wernicke's encephalopathy (WE) is one of two components of the Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, a neuropsychiatric disorder resulting from vitamin B1 (thiamine) deficiency (TD), that often develops in alcoholic patients and other individuals with a grossly impaired nutritional status. WE is associated with irreversible brain damage, particularly in forebrain and midbrain structures. These patients often have a history of recurrent bouts of TD. While thiamine administration represents a well-established treatment for acute WE nowadays, such lesions and the resulting neurological impairment are not responsive to thiamine treatment. Thus, we plan to 1) examine the effects of TD on neural precursor cells capable of forming new neurons and thereby replacing the damaged structures, and 2) the ability of these cells to respond to the injury when administered to the intact TD animal.