Future Approaches to Therapeutic Hypothermia: A Symposium Report

Introduction

Here we discuss the potential of 2 classes of novel pharmaceutical agents for decreasing core body temperature (T_b) in conscious animals. These topics were presented in a session titled Therapeutic Hypothermia, at the 15th International Conference on Monitoring Molecules in Neuroscience (Los Angeles, CA, August 3–7, 2014). First held in 1982 at Nottingham, UK, this biennial conference is organized by the International Society of the same name whose mission is to provide a platform to facilitate the development and refinement of methods for time-resolved detection of chemicals in the living brain. The conference was founded by pioneers in the methods of in vivo microdialysis, voltammetry and biosensors. Since then the meeting has evolved to include a substantial emphasis on state-of-the-art applications of neurochemical techniques. These cover a wide array of studies from single cells to whole animals such as humans. The current session demonstrates the use of wireless technologies for monitoring several physiological variables in freely moving rodents, and reviews advances in analytical techniques for the detection of adenosine which is an important neuromodulator in thermoregulation. Such techniques can be combined to investigate possible new avenues to induce, physiological, therapeutic hypothermia (TH).