Students: Hailey Vecchiarelli

Type of project: Nutraceutical, Mind and Body, Basic, Translational

Grant Type: PhD

Year of Award: 2015

Supervisor: Dr. Mathew Hill

Institutions Affiliated: University of Calgary

Description: The endocanabinoid signaling system (what Cannabis has effects on) is involved in the generation and regulation of stress responses and emotional behaviours.  New evidence has suggested that it might have a role in inflammation as well, making it a potential therapeutic target for conditions such as colitis. This project seeks to explore endocanabinoid signalling as a mediator of stress behaviours and inflammation and evaluate the possibility of using cananinoids (both endogenous and exogenous) to treat the dysfunctions of these processes in a mouse model of colitis.

Students: Erik Fraunberger

Type of project: Nutraceutical, Translational

Grant Type: Masters

Year of Award: 2015

Supervisor: Dr. Michael Esser

Institutions Affiliated: University of Calgary

Description: In addition to antioxidants, black tea extract is an antagonist for a brain receptor (the ephrin receptor) that is implicated in neuronal growth. This project seeks to explore the effect of this interesting property of black tea extract in mitigating the deficits in paediatric traumatic brain injury (in rats). 

Erik won 1st place at the 2016 Neuron Night Knowledge Translation competition!

Students: Runze Yang

Type of project: Basic, Translational, Nutraceutical

Grant Type: Masters

Year of Award: 2015

Supervisor: Dr. Jeff Dunn

Institutions Affiliated: University of Saskatchewan

Description: A certain vitamin is thought to have inflammatory effects on the brain, which might be beneficial to the outcome of some brain cancers. This study seeks to compare the vitamin with the current standard of care drug in its ability to restrict tumor growth. This project also intends to develop a novel MRI neuroimaging method using ferumoxytol to detect changes induced by the vitamin. This new brain scan, in addition to the potential demonstration of the vitamin as a neuro-cancer treatment are two deliverables that can be implemented in clinical care.

Students: Lauren Warrington, Alice Liu

Type of project: Basic, Translational, Nutraceutical

Grant Type: Undergraduate

Year of Award: 2015

Supervisor: Dr. Nazarali

Institutions Affiliated: University of Saskatchewan

Description: Fatty acids are an essential building block of myelin, the coating around nerve cells. This protective coating is targeted in autoimmune conditions like multiple sclerosis and is thought to contribute greatly to MS pathology. This project seeks to explore the role of fatty acids in demyelination in a rat model of MS, including their preventative and therapeutic potential. As fatty acids are part of our diet, this project has clear translatable results. 

Students: Isabel Hedayat

Type of project: Mind and Body, Translational, Clinical Trial

Grant Type: Undergraduate

Year of Award: 2015, 2016

Supervisor: Dr. Oates

Institutions Affiliated: University of Saskatchewan

Description: Gait and mobility issues are prevalent not only in movement disorders like Parkinsons, but in normal aging populations. This project seeks to evaluate a novel physical therapy intervention, haptic anchoring, against the current standard practice, both quantitatively (gait improvement measures) but also qualitatively (to understand how people responded to haptic anchoring). This project could act as a precursor for a full scale clinical trial of haptic anchoring (which involves using balls on strings that dangle near the floor to provide additional sensory feedback when walking). 

Students: Brandon Hauer

Type of project: Basic, Translational, Mind and Body

Grant Type: Undergraduate

Year of Award: 2015

Supervisor: Dr. Dickson

Institutions Affiliated: University of Alberta

Description: There is considerable evidence that sleep impacts memory consolidation for a number of skills and the retention of knowledge. There has been interest in using electrical stimulation on the head as a way to influence this consolidation process, despite an adequate understanding of how this impacts brain processes. This project seeks to address this concern by “testing” this intervention strategy in rats, as this will not only translate into a better understanding of transcranial stimulation, but illuminate how the brain consolidates memories under normal conditions, which go awry in  disorders such as Alzheimer’s and depression.

Student: Wesley Vuong

Type of project: Basic, Translational, Mind and Body

Grant Type: Undergraduate

Year of Award: 2015, 2016

Supervisor: Dr. Dickson

Institutions Affiliated: University of Alberta

Description: Oxygen is used during, before and after surgery in an attempt to regulate and minimize damage from anesthetics. Additionally, hyperoxic conditions have been associated with elevated cognitive abilities, however these effects have yet to be related to brain activity. This project seeks to address this gap by using EEG recordings in tandem with cognitive assessments under hyper, hypo, and normal oxygen conditions. The implications of this project apply to both clinical use of oxygen in surgical settings as well as using oxygen as its own neuroCAM therapy.

Students: Jenna Dobry, Jessica Naidu, Rejimol Perika

Type of project: Nutraceutical, Basic, Translational

Grant Type: Undergraduate

Year Awarded: 2015, 2016, 2017

Supervisor: Dr. Rho

Institutions Affiliated: University of Calgary

Background: Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by poor social and communication skills, cognitive rigidity, and lack of emotional regulation. The Ketogenic Diet (KD) has been effective at treating a number of other neurological disorders, like epilepsy. This project explored aspect of the KD on autism, looking at different features of it to identify what is helpful about it in a mouse model of autism. 

Impact: Autism is a pervasive disorder with very few treatments, most of which are not very effective. If the Ketogenic Diet can improve autism, it could help reduce the burden of what can be a very challenging condition. 

Type of project: Basic/Translational, Nutraceutical/Mind and Body

Principal Investigator: Dr. Quentin Pittman

Institutions Affiliated: University of Calgary

Student: Keiko Chan (UGRAD)

Awards funded to project: 1

Background: Endocannabinoids are a group of chemicals in the brain that help regulate a number of processes, including mood, memory, appetite and immune functions. Cannabinoids may also be found outside the human body; for example, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient of marijuana, is a cannabinoid that exercises its effects on the human body by binding to the brain's endocannabinoid receptors. Anecdotally marijuana has been reported to alleviate Multiple sclerosis (MS) symptoms. This project explored the role of endocannabinoid signalling in an MS to evaluate if there is scientific validity to these claims.

Findings: The MS mice treated with enhanced levels of anandamide (an endocannabinoid) displayed improved sensorimotor functions (clinical score), and reduced cellular markers of inflammation in the nervous system and reduced immune activity, which are the classic hallmarks of MS.

Implications: Endocannabinoid signalling appears to help moderate the immune activity that contributes to the symptoms of MS, helping validate anecdotal claims. These findings support the therapeutic use of marijuana for MS patients, achieving these effects might be possible through the brain’s normal endocannabinoid system. Further research is required to explore this possibility.

Recognition

For their efforts and generous contributions to the Branch Out Neurological Foundation, this research project has been funded by and dedicated to the Mixed Bag for MS.  This annual event helped raise more than $6,000 through an outpouring of support from local businesses, musicians, artists and community members.  

Type of project: Translational, Nutraceutical

Principal Investigator: Dr. Morris H. Scantlebury

Institutions Affiliated: University of Calgary

Student: Patricia Bacus (UGRAD)

Awards funded to project: 1

Background: Infantile epilepsy can be devastating for early development and produce life-long impairments. Current treatments are pharmacologically based and in themselves can be harmful to early development if they are even effective. Anecdotally a ketogenic diet ( high fat, low carbohydrate and normal protein) has aided in mitigating the effects of infantile epilepsy. This project seeks to explore these claims in a rat model of epilepsy and identify what aspect of a ketogenic diet is responsible for the improvements.

Findings: Awaiting final report

Implications: Awaiting final report