The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a $1.8 million grant to Fang Zheng, PhD, an associate professor of pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), to continue research that could lead to new treatments for epilepsy and other neurological diseases.
The NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke awarded Zheng’s lab $385,995 on March 1, which is to be followed by annual awards of $372,745 for each of the following four years, for a total of $1,876,975 over five years.
“Dr. Zheng’s research is unique because it focuses on abnormalities of the cerebral circulation as a major contributing factor to epilepsy rather than focusing on neurons as the cause of the disease,” said Nancy Rusch, PhD, distinguished professor and chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology. “His research raises the possibility that treatments directed at restoring normal function to small cerebral blood vessels may reduce the number and severity of epileptic seizures.”
Zheng said initial research has focused on the underlying mechanisms of neurovascular coupling dysfunction, which happens when the connection between blood flow and neurons in the brain stops working normally.
“Neurovascular coupling, a mechanism that matches local neuronal activity to blood flow, is critical to maintain local microenvironment and normal brain function,” Zheng said. “However, normal neurovascular coupling is disrupted in seizure, traumatic brain injury and other neurological disorders. Despite continued high neuronal metabolism, small cerebral arteries and arterioles begin to inappropriately constrict to limit cerebral blood flow to the challenged neurons.”
He said this process, known as the inverse hemodynamic response (IHR), is thought to contribute to brain damage and functional impairment in people with neurological diseases, including Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.