Jason D Huber
West Virginia University, WV·Pharmacology
In an ischemic stroke, a blocked artery cuts off blood to part of the brain. Around the dead core lies the penumbra, tissue that gets too little blood.
- Fields
Pharmacology
Neuroscience
- Topics
ischemic stroke
mitoNEET
pioglitazone
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2028
What they work on
- Test whether NL-1, a compound that binds the mitochondrial protein mitoNEET, prevents ferroptosis (iron-dependent cell death) in a four-cell Transwell blood-brain barrier model after oxygen-glucose deprivation and reperfusion.
- Test whether NL-1 reduces brain iron accumulation and blood-brain barrier breakdown after middle cerebral artery occlusion, an experimental stroke, in aged male and female rats.
- Determine how and where mitoNEET acts to limit stroke injury, testing the hypothesis that it breaks a cycle of iron-driven lipid peroxidation and death in penumbral neurons.
More about the research
Its neurons stop communicating because their energy production falls. Mitochondria, the cell's power plants, therefore help decide how many neurons die, yet they remain little studied as drug targets. While studying the diabetes drug pioglitazone, researchers found it acts on mitoNEET, a small mitochondrial protein that senses chemical stress and adjusts energy production. Building on pioglitazone, the team designed NL-1, a first-in-class compound that binds mitoNEET specifically. The lab has shown that NL-1 improves brain damage and function in mice and rats after transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO), an experimental stroke in which a major brain artery is briefly blocked.
Why it matters
People who survive ischemic stroke urgently need treatments that limit brain damage and improve recovery. This work could establish mitoNEET as a drug target and lay a scientific foundation for mitochondria-targeted stroke therapies such as NL-1. The compounds may also serve as tools or possible treatments for other neurological injuries and diseases.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Gordon Meares
Ohio State University, OH·Neuroscience
Test whether deleting PERK, an ER stress sensor, in astrocytes or microglia improves outcome after experimental stroke, using mice with cell-specific PERK loss and middle cerebral artery occlusion.
Risheng Xu
Johns Hopkins University, MD·Neuroscience·Early-career
Identify which mast-cell inflammatory signals, such as TNFα and CCL2, are controlled by the receptor Mrgprb2 after ischemic stroke induced by transient middle cerebral artery occlusion in mice.
Cameron Mccarthy
University of South Carolina-Columbia, SC·Physiology
Test whether loss of OGT, the enzyme that adds O-GlcNAc sugar tags to proteins, protects parenchymal arterioles from dysfunction before stroke in mice made diabetic with a high-fat diet and low-dose streptozotocin.
The school
West Virginia University: 15 labs on PI Pages, $259M a year on research, 201 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.