Research Projects

Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) is a great challenge for therapeutic management considering its high morbidity. In SCI patients, specific areas of the brain are stimulated using repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) or intermittent Theta Burst Stimualtion (iTBS) and shown partial improvement in sensory and motor function. A significant potentiation of the locomotor recovery and reduction in glial scarring was induced with implantation of IONPs at the lesion site and low-intensity whole body magnetic field exposure in complete SCI rats. The of the present study is to predict the therapeutic efficacy and identify the biomarkers of intermittent theta-burst stimulation with IONPs implantation in spinal cord injury. We hypothesize that administration of iTBS with IONPs at lesion site would alter the proteome expression to induce functional recovery. The curative effect of the intervention in complete spinal cord injured (SCI) rats will be assessed by behavioural (BBB locomotor score), electrophysiological (corticospinal excitability) and morphological (lesion volume) techniques. Protein profiling of the injured spinal cord tissue using mass spectrometry will give insight into the protein dynamics following the intervention. Further to identify proteins that can be used as signatures for recovery, PIs would correlate the functional data with proteomics. The knowledge imparted from the study is a first step towards deciphering potential biomarkers in human SCI patients following iTBS and IONPs intervention as well as guiding physicians in designing patient-oriented strategies.