Abstract
The International Association of Neurorestoratology (IANR) IV and 8th The Global College of Neuroprotection and Neuroregeneration (GCNN) Conference was successfully held in Amman, Jordan on April 27 to 30, 2011 hosted by IANR, GCNC, and The American Society for Neural Therapy and Repair (ASNTR). More than 400 experts of the Neurorestoratology field from over 40 countries and regions attended this combined novel international summit. The purpose of the 4-day conference was to provide a platform where basic science researchers and clinicians had opportunities to share their latest discoveries and foster possible cooperation in the global Neurorestoratology field. Her Royal Highness Princess Basma Bint Talal and Ex Prime Minister Mr. A. R. Al-Rawabdeh inaugurated the joint conference in a gala opening ceremony and warmly welcomed the delegates.
General Neurorestoratology
In this session professor Geoffrey Raisman (UK) highlighted achievements today and challenges in the future in Neurorestoratology. On behalf of Prof. Paul Sanberg (USA), Professor Paula C. Bickford talked about progress in cell therapy and promotion of endogenous repair in Neurorestoratology. She pointed out that increasing endogenous regenerative capacity is one of the important approaches for therapeutic aspects of neurodegenerative disease. IANR founding president Hongyun Huang (China) demonstrated advances in cell therapy in Neurorestoratology and long-term follow-up of olfactory ensheathing cell (OEC) treatment in complete cases of chronic spinal cord injury (SCI). His data, based on the long-term follow-up of 108 patients with complete chronic SCI after OEC transplant, showed that the therapy is safe and improves neurological functions and quality of life of patients. Active movement-target enhancement-neurorehabilitation therapy (AMTENT) could enhance more functional recovery after OEC therapy. He advocated that multiple cells, multiple routes, multiple courses, and combined strategies (MMMCs) are the principles of the second generation of neurorestorative therapy, which should be recommended as current clinical therapeutic principles of Neurorestoratology. Dafin F. Muresanu (Romania) introduced the concept of pleiotropic multimodal drugs in brain protection and recovery. Qunyuan Xu (China) reported new research on progress in Neurorestoration using tissue engineering technology. Andrey S. Bryukhovetskiy (Russia) proposed a hypothesis of inductive cell bioregulation in Neurorestoratology. Satoshi Kuroda (Japan) focused on autologous bone marrow stromal cell (BMSC) transplantation for CNS disorders. He emphasized an urgent need to develop clinical imaging technique to track the transplanted cells in the CNS to evaluate the therapeutic significance of BMSC transplantation in establishing a definite therapeutic strategy in the clinical situation in the future. Elena Rem Chernykh (Russia) reported new clinical research on M2-like macrophage application for CNS repair from his group. He observed that transplantation of M2-like macrophages via lumbar puncture is safe and improves neurological status in children with cerebral palsy. Russell J. Andrews (USA) introduced new concepts of precision electrochemical techniques for Neurorestoration. On behalf of Huancong Zuo (China), Hongyun Huang presented the current status on the development of Neurorestoratology in China, including the discipline, the Association of Chinese Branch itself, and its work plan.
Traumatic Neurorestoratology (SCI)
Wise Young (USA) introduced the current progress of China SCI Net. Ziad M. Al Zoubi (Jordan), Almudena Ramón Cueto (Spain), Xijing He (China), Tiansheng Sun (China), Shiqing Feng (China), Zuncheng Zheng (China), Hala Gabr (Egypt), and Hooshang Saberi (Iran) all reported on their clinical research into cell therapy for spinal cord injury using different kind of cells separately. Ted Teng (USA) proposed mechanisms underlying human neural stem cells mediated respiratory restoration after experimental spinal cord injury. On behalf of Chaoqun Ye (China), Tiansheng Sun reported her research on cotransplantation of OEC and SC combining treadmill training promote functional recovery from rat with contused spinal cord. Abolghasem Nikfallah (Iran) reported development and validation of the sexual health measures for the spinal cord injury (SCI) in Iranian population. Wagih S. El Masri (UK) talked about spontaneous neurological recovery following traumatic SCI. Said Hammad Abdou (Egypt) reported on the management of chronic critical lower limb ischemia with no distal run off. Mohammad Jamous (Jordan) showed imaging data in chronic SCI.
Hereditary Neurorestoratology
Roger A. Barker (UK) discussed the rationale for treating Huntington's disease (HD) using neural transplants of striatal tissue. Francesca Cicchetti (Canada) discussed neuronal degeneration in striatal transplants and Huntington's disease: potential mechanisms and clinical implications. Haitao Xi (China) presented their data on olfactory ensheathing cell (OEC) transplantation for Friedreich's ataxia patients. Tongchao Geng (China) reported on three case preliminary study of stem cell therapy in neurological diseases. He demonstrated that neural stem/precursor cell (NPC) and mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) transplantation at the same time is safe and may have an important role in neurological recovery.
Pediatric Neurorestoratology
Alok Sharma (India) reported on his clinical research studying stem cell therapy in pediatric neurological disorders. He revealed that administration of autologous bone marrow-derived mononuclear cells in children with incurable neurological disorders and injury is safe and improves their quality of life. Zuo Luan (China) reported effects of neural progenitor cell (NPC) transplantation on children with severe cerebral palsy. This is also an effective and safe method of therapy for severe cases of CP children. Yanchao Qi (China) showed his results on basic study of acupuncture and nerve growth factor in cerebral palsy.
Medicine in Neurorestoratology
Hari Shanker Sharma (Sweden) discussed role of medicine in neurotrauma. He proposed blockade of endogenous neurodestructive elements and/or potentiation of endogenous neuroprotective agents would boost the prospects of neuroprotection and neuroregeneration following CNS trauma. His laboratory is now engaged in using a combination of antibodies, neurotrophic agents, and nanodrug delivery to achieve maximum neuroprotection in various kinds of CNS injury when given at 3–6 h after the primary insult. Stephen Skaper (Italy) reported on glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3) as a target for neuroprotection and neuroregeneration. Yasuo Iwasaki (Japan) reported the neurotrophic effect of olmesartan on spinal motor neurons in vitro and in vivo. On behalf of Tobias von Wild (Romania), Dafin F. Muresanu discussed CNS plasticity and neuroprotective effects of cerebrolysin following the first motor neuron graft from the spinal cord to the peripheral nerve. Kai Liu (Hong Kong) discussed phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) deletion promotes regenerative ability of adult corticospinal axons. He felt that modulating neuronal intrinsic PTEN/motor activity could rejuvenate adult CNS neurons into a regeneration-competent state, and thus represents a promising novel therapeutic strategy to promote axonal regeneration and functional repair after spinal cord injury.
Geriatric Neurorestoratology
Gustavo Moviglia (Argentina) reported combined cellular therapy on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients. On behalf of Di Chen (China), Lin Chen reported on multiple transplantations of olfactory ensheathing cells in ALS patients. This repeated and periodic OEC therapy is strongly recommended for better control for the nature of progressive deterioration of this devastating CNS disorder. Although the cure has not yet been available so far, Peter Riederer (Germany) discussed human brain disorders with or without defects in iron metabolisms. Harry Steinbusch (Holland) reported his basic research on stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus in a rat model of Parkinson's disease. Rosalia Mendez-Otero (Brazil) reported on the use of autologous bone marrow mononuclear cells for treating ischemic stroke patients. She indicated that intra-arterial autologous bone marrow mononuclear cell infusion appears to be safe in patients with moderate to severe acute middle cerebral artery strokes. Barbara Lukomska (Poland) introduced assessment of postischemic neurogenesis in the rat subventricular zone and hippocampus following focal cerebral ischemia followed by transplantation of neural stem cells derived from human umbilical cord blood.
The Ianr Youth Forum
Two young researchers in the field of Neurorestoratology were awarded in the IANR Youth Forum. Yu Zhang (China) showed functional recovery and neural differentiation after transplantation of adipose-derived stem cells in a rat model of intracerebral hemorrhage. Michiyuki Miyamoto (Japan) demonstrated bone marrow stromal cell transplantation enhances recovery of local glucose metabolism after cerebral infarct in rats.
Pain and Basic Research of Neurorestoratology
Dario Siniscalco (Italy) reported on his basic research of human mesenchymal stem cells for neuropathic pain. Lin Chen (China) discussed pain Neurorestoratology. His investigations showed that Pain Neurorestoratology (PN) is an important branch of Neurorestoratology. PN focuses on the new treatment options and the intervention strategies that include: cellular therapies, close injection of neurorestorative drugs and factors, ozone, local muscle deep hyperthermia. Cell medicine and transplantation is the core of this comprehensive PN therapy. Dajue Wang (UK) discussed the reasons of neuron as a nanomachine fail to self-repair. Peng Liang (China) proposed the application of tissue engineering in Neurorestoratology. Qun Xue (China) reported on the negative cosignaling molecule B7-H4 expression by human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and mouse MSC C3H10 T1/2 that mediates its T-cell modulatory activity. Ping Wu (USA) discussed molecular mechanisms of guided motor neuron differentiation from human neural stem cells. Daqing Li (UK) reported their comparison of bulbar and mucosal olfactory ensheathing cells using flow cytometry and simultaneous antigenic bivariate cell cycle analysis.
Traumatic Neurorestoratology (Except SCI)
Hari S. Sharma (Sweden) and William Slikker (USA) discussed approaches for protecting the developing nervous system from anesthetic-induced toxicity. Siwei You (China) introduced protection and its mechanism of OECs in adult rat injured retinal ganglion cells. Their findings suggest that OEC transplantation induces the expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the ocular optic nerve (ON) stump and retina and thus delays the death of axotomized retinal glial cells (RGCs) at a certain survival period. Neurotrophic factors including BDNF secreted by OECs can protect injured OECs in vitro and BDNF plays a major role in such neuroprotection by OECs. Anna Sarnowska (Poland) reported encapsulation of mesenchymal stem cells by bioscaffolds protects cells' survival and enhances their immunomodulatory effect on injured brain tissues after transplantation. She stated that human umbilical cord-derived MSCs (hUCMSCs) encapsulated in gelatin-laminin (GL) scaffolds could be a very promising tool for central nervous system regenerative medicine with strong immunomodulatory and cell supporting effect. Ying Li (UK) reported his research of transplanted olfactory mucosal cells restore paw reaching function without regeneration of severed corticospinal tract fibers across the lesion.
Council Conference
The 2nd IANR Council Election was held on the 27th, during which Prof. Geoffrey Raisman was honored as Honorary President for life, and Prof. Hongyun Huang was honored as Founding President. While Prof. Ziad Al-Zoubi was elected as the President, Prof. Hari S. Sharma was elected as President Elect. Also, the most famous experts in Neurorestoratology from America, China, England, Germany, Romania, and Spain were appointed as Chair of five Work Committees. After competition and serious discussion, it was finally decided that IANR V & 9th GCNN Conference will be held in Xi'an, China in May 2012, sponsored by IANR Chinese Branch and Xi'an Jiaotong University.