Kurpad Lab
Dr. Shekar Kurpad
Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a relatively frequent event; estimates suggest that 12,500 new cases of SCI occur every year in the US alone. In the US, approximately 276,000 persons live with SCI, which has a huge impact on their lives and families, and has tremendous socioeconomic and medical costs. The main causes for SCI are motor vehicle accidents (38%), falls (30%), acts of violence (14%), and sports injuries (9%) (National SCI Database).
The type and degree of disability that is caused by SCI is determined by the location and extent of the injury. Spinal cord tissue is damaged in the injury process and this damage occurs in two steps. The initial damage, the primary injury, is caused by the mechanical trauma to the spinal cord during the accident. This is followed by the secondary injury, which is caused by a number of events, including hemorrhage and inflammation. While acute inflammation is observed in all tissues as a response to injury and is an important prerequisite for the healing process, prolonged and unresolved inflammation, as it is present after SCI, strongly contributes to the tissue damage. Immune cells in the tissue produce factors that maintain and stimulate the inflammatory response and produce factors that contribute to tissue damage.
Red blood cells (RBCs), which are present in the spinal cord tissue due to the hemorrhage, are taken up by phagocytic cells like macrophages. This can result in increased production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, factors that activate immune cells. Previous experiments have shown the relevance of some of these factors after SCI. For example, the absence of one of these cytokines, TNF, leads to a better recovery in mice after SCI and reduces inflammatory activation of cells at the injury site. However, these extent of these results suggests that other factors also contribute to the tissue damage.
We are now attempting to investigate further mechanisms contributing to the secondary tissue damage, including other cytokines and chemokines which may play a role after SCI. We aim to modulate these and investigate the effect on recovery after SCI.
Ultimately, our goal is a translational treatment approach to reduce secondary damage after injury and to improve the outcome and quality of life after SCI. In summary, the broad goal of my research is to investigate and modulate the inflammatory tissue response after spinal cord injury (SCI) with the aim to reduce the secondary damage and thereby to improve the functional outcome after SCI.
Ongoing Studies
Completed Studies
Recent Publications
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(Fehlings MG, Moghaddamjou A, Harrop JS, Stanford R, Ball J, Aarabi B, Freeman BJC, Arnold PM, Guest JD, Kurpad SN, Schuster JM, Nassr A, Schmitt KM, Wilson JR, Brodke DS, Ahmad FU, Yee A, Ray WZ, Brooks NP, Wilson J, Chow DS, Toups EG, Kopjar B.) J Neurotrauma. 2023 Sep;40(17-18):1878-1888 PMID: 37279301 PMCID: PMC10460693 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85166327228 06/06/2023
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(Neal CJ, Ugiliweneza B, Toups EG, Abd-El-Barr M, Jimsheleishvili G, Kurpad SN, Aarabi B, Harrop JS, Shaffrey CI, Fehlings MG, Tator CH, Grossman RG, Guest JD.) J Neurotrauma. 2023 Sep;40(17-18):1907-1917 PMID: 37125447 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85169848329 05/01/2023
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(Kelly-Hedrick M, Ugiliweneza B, Toups EG, Jimsheleishvili G, Kurpad SN, Aarabi B, Harrop JS, Foster N, Goodwin RC, Shaffrey CI, Fehlings MG, Tator CH, Guest JD, Neal CJ, Abd-El-Barr MM, Williamson T.) J Neurotrauma. 2023 Sep;40(17-18):1928-1937 PMID: 37014079 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85169847022 04/05/2023
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(Mansoor Ali D, Sivaganesan A, Neal CJ, Thalheimer S, Ugiliweneza B, Toups EG, Abd-El-Barr M, Jimsheleishvili G, Kurpad SN, Aarabi B, Shaffrey CI, Fehlings MG, Tator CH, Grossman RG, Guest JD, Harrop JS.) J Neurotrauma. 2023 Sep;40(17-18):1970-1975 PMID: 36884291 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85169847577 03/09/2023
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(Futch BG, Kouam RW, Ugiliweneza B, Harrop J, Kurpad S, Foster N, Than K, Crutcher C, Goodwin CR, Tator C, Shaffrey CI, Aarabi B, Fehlings M, Neal CJ, Guest J, Abd-El-Barr MM.) J Neurotrauma. 2023 Sep;40(17-18):1918-1927 PMID: 36852492 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85169846962 03/01/2023
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(Hejrati N, Aarabi B, Neal CJ, Ugiliweneza B, Kurpad SN, Shaffrey CI, Guest JD, Toups EG, Harrop JS, Fehlings MG.) J Neurotrauma. 2023 Sep;40(17-18):1938-1947 PMID: 36597351 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85162830224 01/05/2023
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(Vedantam A, Ugiliweneza B, Williamson T, Guest JD, Harrop JS, Tator CH, Aarabi BA, Fehlings MG, Kurpad SN, Neal CJ.) J Neurotrauma. 2023 Sep;40(17-18):1948-1958 PMID: 36448585 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85169848149 12/01/2022
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(Davies B, Brannigan J, Mowforth OD, Khan D, McNair AGK, Tetreault L, Sadler I, Sarewitz E, Aarabi B, Kwon B, Gronlund T, Rahimi-Movaghar V, Zipser CM, Hutchinson PJ, Kurpad S, Harrop JS, Wilson JR, Guest JD, Fehlings MG, Kotter MRN.) BMJ Open. 2023 Jul 18;13(7):e064296 PMID: 37463815 PMCID: PMC10357680 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85165517288 07/19/2023
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Comparison and optimization of pCASL and VSASL for rat thoracolumbar spinal cord MRI at 9.4 T.
(Lee S, Meyer BP, Hernandez-Garcia L, Kurpad SN, Schmit BD, Budde MD.) Magn Reson Med. 2023 Jun;89(6):2305-2317 PMID: 36744728 PMCID: PMC10050093 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85147533572 02/07/2023
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(Mowforth OD, Burn L, Khan DZ, Yang X, Stacpoole SRL, Gronlund T, Tetreault L, Kalsi-Ryan S, Starkey ML, Sadler I, Sarewitz E, Houlton D, Carter J, Howard P, Rahimi-Movaghar V, Guest JD, Aarabi B, Kwon BK, Kurpad SN, Harrop J, Wilson JR, Grossman R, Smith EK, McNair A, Fehlings MG, Kotter MRN, Davies BM.) BMC Med Res Methodol. 2023 Apr 22;23(1):100 PMID: 37087419 PMCID: PMC10122197 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85153553685 04/23/2023
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(Koch KM, Nencka AS, Klein A, Wang M, Kurpad S, Vedantam A, Budde M.) Front Neurol. 2023;14:1172833 PMID: 37273696 PMCID: PMC10236479 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85161052826 06/05/2023
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Functional Surgery of the Cerebellopontine Angle
(Wackym PA, Kurpad SN, King WA, Nanda A.) Surgery of the Cerebellopontine Angle, Second Edition. 1 January 2023:87-107 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85160143346 01/01/2023