Dr.  Jose Javier Provencio is the Director of the Nerancy Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit and a translational researcher in the Department of Neurology.  He received his medical degree in 1993 from the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine and completed residencies in neurology and internal medicine, medical and neurological critical care at the University of Virginia.

He serves as the Division Head of the Hospital Neurology Division of the Neurology department that includes the ICU and Hospitalist Neurologists, and the medical director of the Nerancy Neuroscience Intensive Care unit and the Neurointermediate Care unit.  His laboratory studies the inflammatory underpinnings of acute brain injuries (particularly aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage), and, with his collaborators, his lab investigates the role of meningeal neutrophils in the cognitive function of the brain.

Nationally, Dr. Provencio serves as a member of the Strategic Planning Committee of the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM).  He is the co-chair of the Grants subcommittee of the Neurocritical Care Research Central and on the steering committee of the Curing Coma Campaign of the Neurocritical Care Society (NCS).  He serves on the editorial board of the CHEST SEEK Critical Care Medicine Self-Education and Evaluation of Knowledge Review series. He is on the Editorial Board of the Journals Neurocritical Care and Translational Stroke Research.

He is married with three children and lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Please tell us your background, where you are from, schooling, etc.

I received my medical degree from Penn State College of Medicine and did residencies in Neurology and Internal Medicine, fellowships in Medical and Neurological Critical Care, and a post-doctoral fellowship in the Biology department all at the University of Virginia. My laboratory focuses on the role of innate inflammation in brain injury, particularly in DCI after SAH. 

What led you to become involved with brain aneurysm research?

As a Neurointensivist and an inflammation researcher I was drawn to studying inflammation that begins after the patient is already in the ICU. DCI after SAH as the perfect disorder. DCI is also one of the most frustrating disorders we treat in the NeuroICU. None of our treatments (save nimodipine) really work, and nothing prevents the debilitating cognitive deficits patients experience. I have never tired of trying to find a cure for this problem.

In the simplest terms, what is the purpose of your project?

We have shown in animal models of subarachnoid hemorrhage that the accumulation of one of inflammatory cells (infection fighting cells) in the blood, neutrophils enter the coverings of the brain (called the meninges) in the first days after subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). When we stop this accumulation of meninges, the vasospasm goes away as does the cognitive problems (which mice experience as memory loss). We have a drug that prevents this accumulation. We plan to take samples of blood and spinal fluid from patients with SAH and expose the neutrophils to the new drug in a test tube to see if human neutrophils respond the same as mice do. This is in preparation for a human trial in patients with SAH that we are planning.

In the simplest terms, what do you hope will change through your research findings?

Quite frankly, we hope that we have found a drug that prevents the process of DCI from starting. If this works in patients the way it does in mice, we expect that fewer patients will experience DCI, and that fewer patients will have long-term cognitive problems in the future.

Why is the funding you are receiving through the Brain Aneurysm Foundation so important?

This study is a crucial first test that will be used to convince the FDA that human trials with this drug are warranted.