Grant: Operating Grant

Stroke is one of the leading causes of death in Canada. Mortality due to stroke is in large part due to abnormal water accumulation that leads to brain swelling and compression within the skull. Current treatment options to reduce the swelling of the brain, also called edema, due to stroke are limited, more than 70 years old and generally require surgical intervention. The limited development of new therapies attests of an incomplete understanding of the regulation of water accumulation in the brain. Thus, the major challenge in the development of new therapies is to better define the mechanism of water transport in brain. A key regulator of water transport in the brain is the water permeable channel, aquaporin 4, which is expressed in non-neuronal cells called glial cells. It is the goal of the present proposal to identify molecules that modulate aquaporin 4 function in glial cells and test whether they may prove to be useful in reducing water accumulation in models of brain edema.