LEFT-RIGHT SIDE-SPECIFIC NEUROENDOCRINE SIGNALING IN BASIC NEUROSCIENCE AND NEUROLOGY

Stroke and traumatic brain injuries are major causes of long-term disability. Deficits in movements and posture occur in most of survivors and often develop on contralesional side.

Dogma in neurology is that these deficits arise due to aberrant activity of neural tracts descending from the brain to spinal cord.

Our results challenge this dogma by demonstration that the brain-to-spinal cord signaling is also mediated by the neuroendocrine system, and that this system operates in the contra-ipsilesional (left-right) side-specific mode.

The brain injury-induced humoral signals are spread by the hypothalamic – pituitary neurohormones including opioid peptides and Arg-vasopressin.In this program we will define a role the side-specific neurohormonal signaling in motor deficits after brain injuries including stroke.

We will reveal how signals from the left and right brain hemispheres are encoded in different neurohormones using pharmacological, genetic and chemogenetic tools, and identify these molecules by mass-spectrometry.Understanding of the side-specific neurohormonal system would open a window of possibilities for pharmacological treatment of motor deficits after stroke and brain trauma.

In a broader biological context, this study would shed light on the long-standing puzzle – whether and how the left and right extremities and the left and right body sides are differentially regulated in bilaterally symmetric animals.