Peroxynitrite, a highly oxidative molecule, plays a role in neuronal cell death following traumatic brain injury (TBI). A peptide comprised of the HIV-1 tat transduction domain fused to nine cysteine residues (Tat-9c) was previously designed to act as an exogenous target for nitrosylation by peroxynitrite. The present study’s aim was to explore the efficacy of Tat-9c in maintaining neurological function following TBI. Rats treated with Tat-9c exhibited significant improvement in performance compared to controls 24 hrs following TBI in the Beam-Walk task but not in the Rota-Rod task. Injured animals, given the drug, show a recovery as indicated by similar performance on the Morris Water Maze task compared to sham controls. These findings suggest Tat-9c may constitute a potential therapy for improving motor and cognitive function following TBI.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/31661 |
| Date | 04 January 2012 |
| Creators | Zhang, Wen-Jia |
| Contributors | Tymianski, Michael |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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