Charles NICAISE

Introduction

Associate Professor, teaching General and Organ Histology at the Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Sciences.

Group Leader at LNR - Laboratoire Neurodégénérescence et Régénération, member of URPhyM Research Unit and NARILIS Research Institute (https://www.narilis.be).

Three research axis are being pursued in the laboratory :

- We investigate the role of glial cells and glutamate transporters in CNS disorders such as osmotic demyelination syndrome (ODS) and spinal cord injuries (SCI). Recent work were focused on the study of glutamate excitotoxicity mediated by cystine-glutamate antiporter (xCT). Using transgenic models (full knock-out xCT mice and Ty1-tagged xCT reporter mice), the role of xCT following SCI is being characterized by a PhD student. She is now evaluating the activity of the antiporter using PET imaging and the effect of various pharmacological inhibitors on the motor recovery post-SCI.

- A second research axis focused on the development of innovative imaging techniques of the spinal cord (micro)anatomy. In collaboration with Italian physicists, we used synchrotron-based x-ray phase-contrast microtomography to image mouse and human spinal cords. This technique allowed 3D reconstruction of the spinal cell and vascular microarchitecture, down to the micrometer resolution, non-invasively and without the use of contrast agents. As a long-term project, we have the ambition to build a cell-resoluted 3D atlas of neurovascular interactions in human and mouse normal spinal cords. Recently, we established a collaboration with Dr. Daniele Bertoglio at UAntwerp – expert in PET and MRI imaging of small animals, being convinced that specific PET radioligands targeting neuronal or synaptic activity are promising tools for diagnosing SCI or evaluating the effect of therapeutics in SCI patients along their care plan. We showed that 11C-UCB-J, a radioligand of SV2A, is a non-invasive biomarker of neuronal/synaptic loss following SCI, endowed with enhanced sensitivity compared to 18F-FDG. These findings indicate SV2A PET imaging provides an objective measure of SCI, and thus a valuable tool to evaluate novel therapeutics.

- A third research project aimed at studying the link between repeated CNS trauma and the susceptibility to or exacerbation of tauopathy. Using a model of mild and twice-repeated spinal cord contusion, we are characterizing the tauopathy signature in wild-type and transgenic tau mice.