Spinal Interneurons: Plasticity After Spinal Cord Injury

The spinal cord is comprised of four types of neurons: motor neurons, pre-ganglionic neurons, ascending projection neurons, and spinal interneurons. Interneurons are neurons that process information within local circuits, and have an incredible ability for neuroplasticity, whether due to persistent activity, neural injury, or in response to disease. Although, by definition, their axons are restricted to the same structure as the soma (in this case the spinal cord), spinal interneurons are capable of sprouting and rewiring entire neural circuits, and contribute to some restoration of disrupted neural communication after injury to the spinal cord (i.e., "bypassing" the lesion site).

Spinal Interneurons provides a focused overview of how scientists classify interneurons in general, the techniques used to identify subsets of interneurons, their roles in specific neural circuits, and the scientific evidence for their neuroplasticity. Understanding the capacity for neuroplasticity and identity of specific spinal interneurons that are optimal for recovery, may help determine cellular candidates for developing therapies.

Spinal Interneurons provides neuroscientists, clinicians, and trainees a reference book exclusively concentrating on spinal interneurons, the techniques and experiments employed to identify and study these cells as part of normal and compromised neural circuits, and highlights the therapeutic potential of these cells by presenting the relevant pre-clinical and clinical work to date. People in industry will also benefit from this book, which compiles the latest in therapeutic strategies for targeting spinal interneurons, what considerations there are for the development and use of treatments, and how such treatments can not only be translated to the clinic, but how existing treatments should be appropriately reverse-translated to the bench.

Author: Lyandysha Viktorovna Zholudeva
Publisher: Academic Press
Published: 12/02/2022
Binding Type: Paperback
ISBN: 9780128192603

About the Author
Zholudeva, Lyandysha Viktorovna: - After completing her Bachelor of Science in Chemistry with a Minor in Biophysics at Creighton University, where she used non-invasive imaging techniques for quantifying cellular metabolism, Lyandysha (Lana) Zholudeva then pursued her doctoral work with Dr. Michael Lane in the Department of Neurobiology & Anatomy, and the Marion Murray Spinal Cord Research Center at Drexel University. After completing her graduate thesis on transplanting neural progenitor cells to repair respiratory networks of the injured cervical spinal cord, with a focus on improving respiratory function, she began a postdoctoral position at the Gladstone Institutes with Dr. Todd McDevitt, where she is focusing on engineering human spinal interneurons for spinal cord repair and disease modeling. Her research aims to identify spinal interneuronal subsets that can be engineered from human induced pluripotent stem cells for transplantation and spinal cord repair.Lane, Michael Aron: - Dr. Michael Aron Lane is an Associate Professor in the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy at the Drexel University College of Medicine. He is a Primary Investigator at the Spinal Cord Research Center. His research focuses on spinal cord injury, neuroplasticity and strategies to optimize lasting functional recovery. He also served as a lecturer in the annual NIH-funded Spinal Cord Injury Training Program at The Ohio State University from 2009 to 2013.