PROTECTIVE ROLE OF NEUREGULIN-1 AGAINST CEREBRAL MALARIA_INDUCED NEURONAL INJURY AND BEHAVIORAL SEQUELAE

This project focuses on the neurodevelopmental and neuropsychological consequences of infectious and toxic exposures in children in Africa. This project will help us understand how infections such as malaria and HIV affect cognition, behavior and developmental outcomes. His publications and funded studies include multiple projects on cerebral malaria, severe malaria with neurological involvement, and interventions intended to remediate or prevent cognitive sequelae. Those prior studies and grants underscore both his expertise in pediatric neurocognitive assessment in African settings and his involvement in translational and interventional research. Framed within that trajectory, the Neuregulin-1 study examines a biologically plausible strategy to protect the brain from the acute neuronal injury and longer-term behavioral consequences that can follow cerebral malaria.

Cerebral malaria remains a major cause of acute neurologic injury in children in endemic regions and prior clinical and translational work—ranging from characterization of developmental outcomes in children with retinopathy-confirmed cerebral malaria to trials of cognitive rehabilitation after severe malaria—offer opportunities to explore neuroprotective approaches that bridge molecular mechanisms and functional recovery. The current study aims to evaluate Neuregulin-1, a signaling molecule implicated in neuronal development, survival and plasticity, for its capacity to mitigate neuronal damage during or following cerebral malaria.

The work facilitates multidisciplinary collaboration—spanning neurology, psychiatry, epidemiology and global health—and his history of mentoring and directing multi-site or training grants. This project potentially leverages established partnerships and capacity for conducting rigorous neuropsychological assessment in low-resource settings, translating mechanistic findings into clinically meaningful interventions. While the provided material does not list a specific funder or budget for this Neuregulin-1 study, the project sits logically within Boivin's broader funded portfolio addressing neurodevelopmental outcomes after infectious exposures, including NIH and institutional awards targeting cognitive rehabilitation, mechanisms of neurologic deficits in central nervous system infections, and training programs in infection and neurodevelopment. The study therefore represents a continuation of Boivin's translational agenda: to identify and test interventions that reduce the burden of infection-associated brain injury and improve long-term cognitive and behavioral outcomes in children affected by cerebral malaria.